Women's 800m world champion faces gender test
20 August 2009
South African teenager Caster Semenya won the women's 800 meters gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, just hours after the sport's governing body asked for the 18-year-old's gender to be verified.
Semenya celebrates her gold, which came just hours after the IAAF called for a gender test on the athlete.
Semenya crushed her rivals by streaking away to secure victory in a time of one minute 55.45 seconds -- the best time in the world this year.
Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya took the silver with Briton Jennifer Meadows claiming bronze. However, the race was run amid controversy following the announcement by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF).
"The gender verification test is an extremely complex procedure," said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies -- who revealed the question of Semenya's gender was first raised after her astonishing African junior championship displays. "In the case of this athlete, following her breakthrough in the African junior championships, the rumors, the gossip were starting to build-up," Davies added to reporters. There have been precedents in such cases, the most famous being that of Polish athletics great Stella Walsh, who won Olympic gold in the 100 yards at the 1932 Olympics and silver in the same event in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.source: cnn.com