Chuene shifts Semenya blame to racist South Africans

WESLEY BOTTON

JOHANNESBURG - Athletics SA (ASA) president Leonard Chuene on Friday refused to accept any blame by his federation for the Caster Semenya gender controversy, accusing racist South Africans of creating the fiasco.

Semenya stunned the world last month when she won the African junior 800m title in one minute and 56.72 seconds, but when she arrived in Berlin last week at the World Athletics Championships, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) requested tests be done to determine the teenager’s gender.

The test results would not be available for at least another few weeks but in the meantime Semenya went on to win the two-lap final in a magnificent 1:55.45 on Wednesday night.

Chuene, however, said ASA had never had reason to suspect her gender despite the athlete’s muscular physique, facial hair and deep voice.

Semenya’s father and coach have both assured in media reports that Semenya was indeed born a girl, but it is far more complicated than a simple glance at her genitals at birth.

There is no doubt that Semenya believes she is female and was raised as a girl.

But, if she was born with both male and female chromosomes, the IAAF must then decide -- after numerous tests in a complicated procedure -- whether Semenya can run against women.

If the test results prove she is indeed entirely female, then case closed. Sort of.

Following the media frenzy that has broken out around the world, even if the test results return in Semenya’s favour, she faces possible doubters throughout her career.

And Chuene denied that ASA could have put out fires before they started if they had tested Semenya before she rose to the highest stage of international athletics.

“The responsibility of the federation (ASA) is to train children and take them to the championships,” Chuene said.

“When a child is born, the parents don’t take them for tests to find out if it is a boy or a girl, they simply look.

“The family will bring us a child and say they have given us a girl, and we accept that.

“We then prepare her, which we did, and she went on to win gold, so we’ve done our job. You tell me what more we could have done.”

Chuene went on to blame racist South Africans for writing letters to the IAAF which, he believes, triggered the governing body’s probe into Semenya’s gender.

“This is about racism,” Chuene said.

“These rumours come from South Africa. Why did these people write to the IAAF?

“These are the same people who don’t want 2010 (next year’s Fifa World Cup), the same people who bring black people down and the same people who refuse to believe that Africans can make it on the world stage.”

-Sapa