SYDNEY: Gender tests have revealed that South Africa's 800m world champion Caster Semenya has no womb or ovaries, according to a report in Australia's Daily Telegraph.
Instead, the 18-year-old has internal testes - the male sexual organs which produce testosterone.
The International Association of Athletics Federations had announced shortly before her easy win in Berlin last month that she would have to undergo a barrage of tests aimed at verifying her gender.
That news sparked outrage in South Africa.
The tests were completed this week, but the IAAF said yesterday Semenya will only learn her fate in November.
'There'll be nothing before that,' Pierre Weiss, the secretary-general said. 'It is clear that she is a woman but maybe not 100 per cent.
'We have to see if she has an advantage by possibly being between two sexes compared to the others.'
It seems the IAAF is looking for time to handle a delicate situation, and to give Semenya, who has fought off snide remarks about her masculine appearance for much of her life, the chance to understand her condition.
The IAAF will also have to decide whether to take back her gold medal or award another to the runner-up, Janeth Jepkosgei from Kenya.
But the revelations by the Daily Telegraph yesterday may have upset the IAAF's timetable. The newspaper quoted a source which was involved in Semenya's gender tests.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source explained that Semenya had three times the amount of testosterone than a 'normal' female.
The source added: 'There certainly is evidence Semenya is a hermaphrodite. But the trouble is the IAAF now have the whole of South Africa on their backs. It's very dramatic.'
The source also claimed that Athletics South Africa knew of Semenya's condition even before sending her to Berlin, saying: 'ASA have known for months, for years, that she's not normal.'
Just this week, Semenya was featured on South African magazine You after a makeover.
She had said: 'God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I don't want to talk about the tests - I'm not even thinking about them.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
