Hamburg - Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge sprung to the
defence of the beleaguered athletics body IAAF in the Caster Semenya
gender case on Thursday, saying it ran out of time.
Speaking in a teleconference from the IOC headquarters in
Lausanne, Switzerland, Rogge spoke of 'a very complicated issue'
around the South African 800 metres world champion Semenya.
The IAAF announced just hours before the 800m final at the Berlin
worlds on August 19 that it had requested a gender verification test.
The IAAF decided on the measure after Semenya burst onto the scene
on July 31 with the world leading 1 minute 56.72, improving her 2008
best by almost eight seconds. She won the Berlin final in 1:55.45.
Last week, Australian news reports said that results of the
extensive tests showed Semenya, 18, was intersex. The IAAF has not
officially announced the test results and will not comment until a
final decision set for November.
South African politicians and sports officials reacted with
outrage to the case and attacked the IAAF for its role.
But Rogge said: 'I think that the IAAF has unfortunately been
caught by a shortage of time.
'The athlete came to the forefront very close to the Berlin world
championships. The IAAF launched an inquiry but unfortunately this is
time-consuming. The results were not available by Berlin.'
Rogge said he was waiting like everyone else for the test results
and what experts will decide in the case.
'It is a very complicated issue because you probably have heard
that there is no clear cut, no easy positive or negative definition
of gender.
'You have a lot of in-between situations and then the experts must
make an assessment ultimately is this going to be considered an
athlete that can compete with the women or could not compete with the
women.'
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