Barry Roberts in The Independent today reports on a controversy that is likely to literally run and run over the coming month (and see WVoN's story yesterday).
Canadian athlete Diane Cummins said at the weekend that competing against women's 800m World Champion Caster Semenya was like "literally running against a man". Her comments, reigniting previous concerns raised first after her victory in Berlin last year have had no impact on South African coach Michael Seme or on Caster herself who is quoted as saying she 'doesn't care' what her opposition in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October think.
Diane Cummins is essentially sympathetic to Semenya, acknowledging that it is not Caster's fault that the scientific issue is complicated, with the boundaries between what constitutes 'male' and 'female' seeming to become more difficult to determine.
However, her main concern is that: "Even if she is a female, she's on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man."
Michael Seme is happy to leave it to the organisers to do the talking for the South African camp on this one, stating that if Caster is invited to events there is in his eyes no problem. He goes on to suggest that if other athletes are uncomfortable with the situation they should stay at home.
Asked whether there were any concerns from Semenya, who has only recently been cleared by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following the discovery of high levels of testosterone in a routine sample, he responded: "No, no, no. We don't even care about the past now, we're just looking forward to new things and shouldn't be talking about the old ones. That is now over and gone."
Seme went on to play down talk of a certain win for his athlete in Delhi, but she is bound to be on course to cause a significant amount of controversy again in the coming months, forcing the IAAF into making what for that organisation must be a no-win decision.
Semenya's next race is in Italy at the Notturna di Milano on 9 September.
