Caster Semenya eases through 1500 metres heat as uncertain future remains

CASTER Semenya last night impressively started her Gold Coast assault on another slice of athletics history, but is running into an uncertain future.

South Africa’s Caster Semenya cruised to victory in her 1500m heat on Monday night. Picture: AFP/Adrian Dennis

CASTER Semenya last night impressively started her Gold Coast assault on another slice of athletics history, but is running into an uncertain future.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in November gave world athletics governing body, the IAAF, six months to explain how it intends to implement its “hyperandrogenism regulations’’ after the IAAF commissioned fresh research in mid-2017.

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In her first race outside South Africa since the IAAF vote, the 27-year-old dual Olympic 800m champion won her 1500m heat at Carrara Stadium in a time of 4min05.86sec to make Tuesday’s final.

Semenya, who is intersex, was temporarily suspended from international competition for almost 12 months from mid-2009 while required to comply with sex testing.

Then 19, she agreed to comply with hormone treatment to address her naturally occurring level of testosterone.

IAAF council members last month approved a policy which it wants to take effect in November.

When the IAAF study was announced last year, Semenya said the issue had been going on for “nine years and it’s quite boring’’.

Semenya is bidding to become the third woman to win Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 800m and 1500m in the same year.

In Semenya’s heat, Australian 21-year-old Georgia Griffith ran past five women in the straight to qualify for the final in second place in a personal-best 4:06.41.

In the other heat, Australian champion Linden Hall (4:08.64) managed to avoid a fall and qualify for the final when her heel was clipped by Kenyan Winny Chebet. Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech won the heat in 4:08.29.

The IAAF’s study last year identified five events in which elite women athletes with higher testosterone levels “have a significant competitive advantage” over others. These were the 400m, 400m hurdles, 800m, hammer throw and pole vault.

The new IAAF guidelines, which have to be explained to the satisfaction of CAS to get a legal green light, do not govern the hammer throw or pole vault, but added the women’s 1500m.

South Africans were not the only one to note that the 800m and 1500m are Semenya’s prime events and the two field events are not.

“No hyperandrogenic athlete has cheated – this is about our responsibility as a sport federation to ensure a level playing field,’’ IAAF president Sebastian Coe said.

The 1500m is a relatively new event for Semenya, who has a personal best time in the 1500m of 4:01.99, slower than Hall’s (4:01.78).

Chebet had been one of the main gold medal contenders and after falling in the first heat she crossed the line in her heat in last place.

Originally published as Caster Semenya eases through 1500 metres heat as uncertain future remains