Report: Locals OK'd Runner's Gender Test

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An e-mail exchange published Friday in a South African newspaper appears to show that local athletics officials had planned to give runner Caster Semenya a gender test before the world championships in Berlin.

South African officials have repeatedly said tests were done on the 800-meter world champion only abroad, not in South Africa.

But in e-mails published Friday by the weekly Mail & Guardian, Athletics South Africa general manager Molatelo Malehopo apparently gives team doctor Harold Adams permission to "go ahead" with "the necessary tests that the IAAF might need." The e-mail is dated Aug. 5, 10 days before the championships began.

ASA president Leonard Chuene was copied in on an e-mail a day earlier to Malehopo where Adams asks for advice on handling the "confidential matter."

Either, Adams says, a gynecological opinion can be obtained and taken to Germany or "we do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin."

Chuene was not copied in on Malehopo's response.

Neither Chuene, Malehopo nor Adams responded to requests for comment.

Local newspapers have reported that Semenya was tested at the Medforum Mediclinic in Pretoria early last month. The hospital could not confirm or deny that she was there.

The ruling IAAF revealed before the 800 final on Aug. 19 that it had ordered gender tests to be carried out on Semenya as questions had been raised about her muscular physique and stunning improvement in times.

The governing body of athletics has since refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports saying the tests show that Semenya has both male and female sex organs. It has said test results are being studied and a decision on whether she will be allowed to continue in women's events is expected in November.

[saoir--2008]

Earlier in 2009 a South African rugby player was sanctioned by International Rugby organisation for trying to gauge out the eyes of an opponent on live TV. The South Africans responded with totally appalling and disproportionate "outrage" despite it having been seen by millions on tv. They tried to intimidate the organisation to change it's mind and disrespected the competition by wearing protest armbands in later games.
People round the rugby playing world were shocked at South Africa's chip on it's shoulder and it's inability to accept any criticism.
It is deja Vu - here we have SA threatening 3rd World War !!!! ....... after one of it's athletes was caught cheating.
I say cheating because they allowed this athlete to compete without being tested despite people in SA having common knowledge of her strange appearance. They allowed her to complete even though her family and coaches MUST have been well aware that she was physically not a 100% woman.
This athlete herself knew she was cheating.
Then the SA authorities were "appalled" and "outraged" that the results of the tests were made public. Yet they sent this athlete to compete in the World Athletics competition on a world stage where the public have a right to know if their competitors are cheating or not. There is something deeply wrong with the psyche of this South African Nation.
And let us not be in any doubt that this athlete was cheating. She and her coach and her team mates knew she was cheating. How can the thousands of women around the world be expected to compete against an athlete who is so clearly in a completely different category from them ?? They may as well pack their bags and go home.
Is it the fault of this athlete that she is the way she is ? of course not. But it IS her responsibility to have been honest in declaring her physical state. She knew the rules. She kept them secret. She cheated.

Shame on her, Shame on her coaches, Shame on her family and shame on South Africa for exhibiting such moral bankruptcy.