New twist in Caster Semenya case!!

WORLD champion athlete Caster Semenya has arrived home in South Africa to reports she recorded elevated levels of the male hormone testosterone in testing.

Preliminary medical tests taken on the 800 metres gold medallist before the start of the World Championships indicated she had three times the normal female level of testosterone, according to the UK's Telegraph newspaper.

The paper claims the information has prompted the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to ask the South African athletics body to carry out a detailed "gender verification" test on Semenya.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the head coach of the South African national team, Dr Ekkart Arbeit, has a controversial history.

Arbeit was accused by East German shot-putter Heidi Krieger of giving her so many anabolic steroids she was forced to undergo a sex-change operation.

It is unclear how closely Arbeit worked with Semenya, but he has insisted that since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he has had no involvement with performance-enhancing drugs and that his training methods are clean.

"Undermining success"

The ANC Youth League has accused the IAAF of racism.

"We must celebrate our athlete's victory despite the attempts by racist institutions to undermine what she has achieved. We are proud of her," ANCYL's national spokesperson Floyd Shivambu told the BBC.

South Africans have also rallied behind her, with family members showing the BBC a birth certificate.

Medical tests on the athlete are said to be ongoing, with the results not expected for several weeks.

My Comment: isn't is just great - good old ANCYL anything happens and they accuse everyone of RACISM - it's not racism at all guys, it's GENDER DISCRIMINATION. I am laughing my ass off here.......Nice one to have the old Eastern Bloc drug supplier as the head coach for Athletic SA - trust him too? Nah, I don't supply drugs since the Berlin wall fell down....promise, I remember the day, that was when I said to myself, "no this is wrong" "I am not going to drug my athletes any more" trust me I don't do it anymore......hahahahahaha

My confirmed opinion is testosterone is a performance enhancing drug - I know it is produced normally, but in my prefered sport of cycling, raised levels of testosterone IN MEN gets them stripped of titles - Floyd Landis who won the Tour De France recently for example and he was banned for two years as well - nothing to do with gender. Testosterone can be and is produced by the body in it's normal levels, Three times the normal level is doping and I guess only time will tell with this "Lady". Lets see what the IAAF says down the line.

Will be very interesting to see what the rest of the results of the tests reveal. I certainly hope that she is female,( and perhaps unwittingly has been doped by her coach), because a lot of people are going to look very stupid if she is not..... Athletics SA has cast her to the wolves and no amount of crying racism or why did Maria Mutola from Mozambique be asked to do gender tests, will make this go away. Of course these athletes - all of them have been tested after performances like those of Caster, but have they been doing the tests in South Aftrica right? - when they get to saying, well all you got to do is drop her daks and see - I wonder. To show a birth certificate and say that proves it is laughable. I too registered MY children and they simply put on the certificate what you tell them to put at the old Department of Home affairs.