JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – World 800-metre champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has her sights set on 1500m glory as well at the 2010 London Olympics
"I'm looking forward to my first Olympics and the plan is to include the 1500m race," the 20-year-old told the Sowetan newspaper after winning her first race in South Africa since striking gold during the 2009 world championships.
Semenya, who underwent gender verification tests following her Berlin triumph and did not race for almost a year, plans to defend the world title in South Korea during August of 2011.
Semenya clocked 2:04.12 to win a weekend 800m race in north-west university town of Potchefstroom during the first leg of the national athletics series race.
Semenya, whose personal best is 1:55.45, tells us she hopes to lower her time to two minutes in the next round of a series that will be used as preparations for the upcoming trip to Asia.
A back injury that prevented her competing at the Commonwealth games in India last October is on the mend.
"I feel much better and that is why I ran and won the race. I am under observation by a physiotherapist, though."
After 800m world champion Caster Semenya underwent sex tests, the examinations revealed that she is a hermaphrodite. The tests reveal that Caster Semenya has no ovaries or womb, and her testosterone levels are 3 times higher than any woman. After winning the 800m world championship in Berlin Germany, Caster Semenya has been bombarded with doubts on whether she is male or female. With these tests we now conclude she is a woman, just not 100% woman. There is a possibility that her gold medal may be taken away from her and she might not be able to race ever again. Caster underwent a gender examination the same day that she won the 800m world championship race. Caster Semenya was ordered to take the examination because officials wanted to get a clear determination on whether she had a "medical condition." Her muscular body with muscular arms and toned mid section are what sparked the doubt in the first place.
This week South African track star Caster Semenya has gone through a week of "change." She is the woman at the center of a gender controversy during last month's world track championships in Berlin, Germany.
The first change she went through this week was that of her coach quitting after feeling ashamed of not telling Caster about the gender testing she was set to undergo. He duped her into thinking she was taking a doping test. The second change she went through was appearing on the cover of a popular South African magazine titled "You." On the cover of the magazine she appears with a complete makeover putting to rest all the claims insisting she is a man.
In the photo shoot, Caster is sporting a curly hair do, a nice womanly designer dress, jewelry, makeup, and even has her nails done. What many do not know is that this is truly the first time Caster has appeared like an actual woman. Caster says she truly likes her new look. Caster told the British Broadcasting Corporation she would like to dress up more often, but really never gets too many chances to do so.
After being subjected to all the gender controversy, Caster continued to don her cornrows and pound her chest like that of a defensive back. Lets hope Caster did this at her own peril and not simply because she wanted to prove her critics wrong. Truly if Caster wants to wear baggy clothes and dress like a man, then she should do so without being subjected to the opinion of a some jealous coaches. Former coach Wildred Daniels apparently was told the entire gender matter would stay private, unfortunately it did not happen.
Before her Gold Medal win in Berlin, Germany, Caster Semenya underwent sex examinations, said former South African athletics coach on Monday, after quitting because of the sex storm. Prior to arriving in Berlin, Caster was asked to go to a clinic in Pretoria to undergo some gender tests, but these tests were really not explained to her properly. Caster was told she was simply going to undergo a normal urine and blood test. In reality the test she had to go through was a gender test. Wilfred Daniels alleges that the ASA and IAAf had both made a mess of the entire situation. This mistake has caused an outrage in the country of South Africa. Daniels says that Caster was put in a very bad position where she had to endure what she endured simply because she was not briefed properly. No one properly explained the situation to her or helped her anticipate what she might be confronted with once arriving in Berlin. Daniels resigned over the entire repulsive handling of the matter. In closing, Daniels said, "We did not handle Caster properly. The handling of the issue was atrocious."
CNN reported today that South African teenager Caster Semenya won the women's 800 meters gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, just hours after the sport's governing body asked for the 18-year-old's gender to be verified.
Semenya crushed her rivals by streaking away to secure victory in a time of one minute 55.45 seconds -- the best time in the world this year.
Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya took the silver with Briton Jennifer Meadows claiming bronze.
However, the race was run amid controversy following the announcement by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF).
"The gender verification test is an extremely complex procedure," said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies -- who revealed the question of Semenya's gender was first raised after her astonishing African junior championship displays.
"In the case of this athlete, following her breakthrough in the African junior championships, the rumors, the gossip were starting to build-up," Davies added to reporters.
There have been precedents in such cases, the most famous being that of Polish athletics great Stella Walsh, who won Olympic gold in the 100 yards at the 1932 Olympics and silver in the same event in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
However, after she was shot dead during an armed robbery in 1980, the subsequent autopsy revealed she possessed male genitalia, although she also had female characteristics as well.
Meanwhile, Yusuf Saad Kamel secured Bahrain's first-ever medal with a superb late surge to claim gold in the men's 1,500 meters.
Kamel, who until 2003 competed for Kenya as Gregory Konchellah and is the son of former two-time world 800m champion Billy, won in a time of three minutes 35.93 seconds.
Ethiopia's world indoor champion Deresse Mekonnen claimed a surprise silver with defending champion Bernard Lagat, also Kenyan-born but now competing for the United States, in bronze.
""It's amazing to win a world title just like my father. The only thing left for me to do is to beat his times and win more medals and get to the front of my family," Kamel told reporters.
Olympic silver medallist Asbel Kiprop of Kenya could only finish fourth after leaving himself too much to do down the home straight.
Elsewhere, sprint king Usain Bolt produced an effortless run to coast into the men's 200m final and remain on course to claim a world sprint double to add to his Olympic sprint double from Beijing.
The 22-year-old Jamaican, who set a new world record of 9.58 seconds in winning the 100m on Sunday eased home to win his semifinal in 20.08 seconds and only injury looks like depriving him of gold.
"I just try and get through and make it as easy as possible," Bolt told reporters. "I've been training for this for a long time now. I know what I have to do."
There was more sprint joy for Jamaica when Bolt's compatriot Brigitte Foster-Hylton ran a season's best time of 12.51 seconds to finally claim gold in the women's 100m hurdles.
The 34-year-old, who won world bronze in Helsinki in 2005 and silver in Paris in 2003, secured her first global title by edging out Canada's Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.
Another Jamaican, Delloreen Ennis-London, took the bronze medal.
However, the biggest cheer of the night at an electric Olympic Stadium was reserved for Germany's Robert Harting, who dramatically won the men's discus gold with his sixth and final throw of 69.43 meters.
Poland's long-time leader Piotr Malachowski won silver with a throw of 69.15m with defending world and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter of Estonia claiming the bronze with 66.88m.
he victory was host nations Germany's second of the championships after Steffi Nerius claimed gold in the women's javelin on Tuesday.
In my honest opinion its very unfortunate that this young talented female has to be subjected to this kind of treament, I think she really is a woman and hopefully this all blows over very soon.
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – World 800-metre champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has her sights set on 1500m glory as well at the 2010 London Olympics 
