Los Angeles: Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya will race the 3,000 metres at the Diamond League Prefontaine Classic on June 30, a distance she can contest without reducing her testosterone levels.
The South African has won two Olympic golds at 800m, and has insisted she will not take medication to comply with new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules governing testosterone levels in women athletes that went into effect on May 8.
The new rules require 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 compete in races over distances of 400m to the mile.
Semenya won the 800m at the Doha Diamond League meeting this month in her first race since losing her appeal of the controversial ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
South Africa have said they will lodge an appeal of the CAS ruling with the Switzerland Federal Tribunal citing lack of clarity over how the rules can be implemented.
— AFP
