ATHLETICS:SOUTH AFRICA'S track and field federation has been asked to conduct further gender tests on 800-metres runner Caster Semenya amid concerns she does not meet the requirements to compete as a woman.

The IAAF confirmed yesterday that they’d requested the gender test about three weeks ago, after Semenya burst on to the scene by improving her personal bests in both the 800 and 1,500 metres by huge margins.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the “extremely complex, difficult” test has been started but that the results were not expected for weeks. The verification requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender.

“It’s a medical issue, not an issue of cheating,” Davies stressed. “So we’re talking about reports that are very long, very time-consuming. I can’t say that if X happens in the future that we will, for example, retroactively strip results. Its legally very complex.

“If there’s a problem and it turns out that there’s been a fraud ... that someone has changed sex, then obviously it would be much easier to strip results. But if it’s a natural thing and the athlete has always thought she’s a woman or been a woman, it’s not exactly cheating.”