Is rising star Aminatou Seyni the new Caster Semenya of athletics?
Niger’s Aminatou Seyni has stormed home to win her 200m — but it’s a victory which is sure to have the governing body squirming over the coming days, writes SCOTT GULLAN.
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Meet the new Caster Semenya?
Niger’s Aminatou Seyni, the third-fastest female 400m runner this year, has confirmed she was prevented from entering the event by the IAAF because of its new testosterone cap.
Instead she ran in the 200m, storming home over the final stages to win her heat in a fashion that is sure to have the governing body squirming over the coming days.
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After effectively running Semenya out of the sport with its new eligibility regulations for athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), it would be a PR disaster if a DSD athlete won a world title.
The new regulations focus on the level of testosterone with DSD athletes forced to get treatment to lower their rate. These restrictions are confined solely to distances between 400m and a mile, the very events in which Semenya specialises.
As a result the two-time Olympic 800m champion isn’t in Doha, she’s at home in South Africa looking at a career as a professional footballer and vowing to keep up the fight to the IAAF.
The new testosterone rule kept all three Rio Olympic 800m medallists out of the event at these world championships.
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Two years ago the event produced an exclusively intersex podium with Semenya taking gold ahead of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui from Kenya.
In their absence Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi last night won the world title. She didn’t even qualify for the final in Rio and her winning time of 1min58.04sec was almost four seconds outside Semenya’s personal best.
As a contest, the women’s 800m is now unrecognisable from the decade of Semenya’s dominance since 2009, when she first burst to global attention with gold in Berlin.
Seyni’s rapid rise has a lot of Semenya about it.
The 22-year-old came from nowhere this season, taking 1.5 seconds off her 400m personal best.
She clocked 49.19sec at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 5, a time bettered this year only by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo and 2017 World silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser. And only a handful of sprinters throughout the 2000s.
Then she disappeared from the circuit. Not a single race at 400 metres, only a start over 200 metres in the African championships.
The new testosterone regulations aren’t in force for sprint events due to research suggesting DSD athletes only got an advantage over distance.
“It’s unfair,” Seyni said after setting a new national record of 22.58sec in the heat.
“We are going to try to fix it between my manager and the IAAF but yes, they have prevented me from participating in the 400 meters.
“It is because of the new regulations of the IAAF. As in the case of Caser Semenya, I am obliged to do like her.”
The semi-finals of the women’s 200m are on Wednesday morning (AEST) with the final the following day.
Originally published as Is rising star Aminatou Seyni the new Caster Semenya of athletics?