Caster Semenya coach quits over gender row

The coach of South African runner Caster Semenya has quit over the gender row surrounding the 800m world champion, claiming that sex tests were carried out on the teenager before her Berlin gold medal win.
 
Speaking on Monday after he quit Athletics South Africa (ASA), Wilfred Daniels alleged that the ASA had tricked Semenya into taking a gender test. The 18-year-old runner, whose androgynous appearance has sparked international debate, believed she was taking part in standard drug tests, he added.
 
"Before Caster left for Berlin, she was then asked to go to a clinic here in Pretoria to undergo some of these tests but the tests were not explained to her properly," Daniels told Talk Radio 702. "The normal urine or blood test - that is what she was told. According to the source that I spoke to, it was actually some sort of gender verification test that was done on her."
 
ASA - which has always denied tests were done on the athlete before the controversy broke - responded by saying that proof of Daniels' allegations should be produced. After Caster Semenya won the women's 800m at the athletics World Championships in Berlin last month with a new personal best of 1:55.45, she was told to take gender tests by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). That investigation could take weeks to conclude.
 
Daniels also said that he was sorry for not protecting his teenage charge from all the media attention, which ASA should have predicted. "I'm so sorry for the part I played; because of my negligence she went through all that." The handling of the issue had been "atrocious", he added.
 
Meanwhile Semenya has been given a makeover by a South African glossy magazine. The teenager features on the cover of You magazine and in a four-page photo shoot, wearing designer dresses, tight leather trousers and stilettos. She also sports make-up, jewellery and a new hairstyle.
 
In an interview with the magazine, Semenya talks about how she enjoys dressing up. "I'd like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance," the 18-year-old student says. "I'd also like to learn to do my own makeup."
 
And the athlete also breaks her silence over the controversy surrounding her gender. "I see it all as a joke, it doesn't upset me," she says. "God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself." ·