Semenya saga: management

THANKS JOHN FOR KEEPING US ALL UP TO SPEED :cool:

AND WELL, WHAT DO YU KNOW, THE SOUTH AFRICANS HAVE SCREWED EVERYTHING UP AGAIN…:rolleyes:

As predicted (and as we all instinctively realised even before the IAAF’s “clarrification”) yesterday, this case was far from done:

THE Caster Semenya saga continues, and contrary to one headline, the case is far from “closed”.

If there is a question about Semenya’s sex, and for whatever reasons medical gender verification tests have not been finalised, then she will henceforth be ineligible to compete in women-only events internationally - until such tests have been completed enabling “experts” to clear her - or otherwise.

The International Association of Athletics Federations is under the legal gun to say nothing about Semenya’s “medical condition” but the fact that this remains “unfinished business” will eventually come to light next time she wishes to run for South Africa in an IAAF-sanctioned event.

Giving her the money, medal and title for her win in the women’s 800m at the world championships in Berlin in August is just a way of the IAAF satisfying the lawyers in the interim.

And a device by which the hysteria in Sth Africa can be hosed down until such time as there are people installed at Athletics South Africa who are rational, intelligent and above all scrupulous enough to see the big picture. That process is underway with the interim administrator Ray Mali now in the Athletics South Africa office - having had the incumbent knucklehead removed by the cops!

The IAAF were caught in an impossible position with the Semenya situation from the outset. When asked point-blank whether this man-like athlete was having a sex test, they could have lied like ASA president Leonard Chuene, or told the truth.

In deciding to tell the truth, the lawyers worked the game as a breach of Semenya’s privacy. So Chuene is under threat of prosecution for lying and the IAAF (until today’s “settlement”) was under threat of prosecution for not lying!

Under the lawyers’ threat, the Semenya saga had reached an impasse, so the IAAF - indeed also to save their own skin - agreed (happily I dare say) to allowing Semenya to keep the proceeds of her Berlin adventure just to be in a situation whereby legal threats were removed and matters may now progress.

But to be clear, the Semenya saga may slide under the radar for a time, but a resolution on her future running career remains far from finalised and until it is, her appearance on the world stage cannot be sanctioned.