03 May,2019 08:41 AM IST | Doha | AFP
Caster Semenya
Caster Semenya has responded to losing her legal challenge against new gender rules by entering the 800 metres in Doha Diamond League meeting, while she hinted at ending her career in several cryptic tweets.
Semenya, the double Olympic champion at the distance, was added to the 800m start list yesterday morning, a day after her appeal against a new rule regulating testosterone levels for women athletes was rejected by the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS).
Doha organisers said the South African runner had waited for the outcome of Wednesday's CAS hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland, before deciding whether to run in the meeting that opens the Diamond League season.
Semenya had challenged the measures, introduced by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), that will force women with higher than normal male hormone levels - so-called "hyperandrogenic" athletes - to artificially lower the amount of testosterone in their bodies if they are to continue competing.
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The rules will come into effect on May 8 and will apply to races over distances of 400m to the mile. Semenya hinted at quitting the sport in a tweet yesterday, saying: "Knowing when to walk away is wisdom. Being able to is courage. Walking away with your head held high is dignity."
In a later tweet, she said: "They laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at them because they're all the same." Semenya was not present at a press conference in the Qatari capital to hear IAAF president Sebastian Coe defend the CAS decision, saying it helped to create a level playing field in the women's events. "I think this is pretty straightforward, and it's very straightforward for any international federation in sport," Coe said.
"Athletics has two classifications: it has age, it has gender, we are fiercely protective about both and I am really grateful that the CAS has upheld that principle."
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