Semenya seeks to shrug off suspicion

By Mark Gleeson

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Caster Semenya's overriding priority this year is to leave three years of controversy behind her by adding the Olympic 800 meters gold medal to her 2009 world title.

The South African's emphatic victory in Berlin raised questions about her gender and started a verification process that still clouds her achievement.

She had emerged from obscurity to win gold in one minute 55.45 seconds, the fastest time of the year and a remarkable improvement on the times she had been clocking only months earlier.

The strength and power of the unknown 18-year-old as she destroyed the field down the final stretch prompted the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to order an investigation into possible drug use and ask for a gender test.

The inquiry set off a long-running controversy, marked by media leaks, accusations and insults that enraged her home country and severely affected a shy girl from a rural village.

Semenya's sexuality became the subject of widespread debate and kept her off the track for almost a year before the IAAF cleared her to run again. South Africa's sports minister threatened "a third world war" if the world athletics governing body tried to ban her.

The results of the gender tests have never been published. But Australia's Daily Telegraph reported in late 2009 that they showed that, while she had female genitalia, she was also born with undescended testes which provided her with three times the amount of testosterone present in an average female.

Fellow runners branded her a man and said it was unfair they had to compete against her.