South Africa’s Caster Semenya takes 800 metres gold

She was still good enough to take silver behind Savinova in London but the Russian is facing a lifetime ban from the sport after evidence implicating her in doping.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 21 (efe_epa). That didn’t make it any less impressive, or any less contentious. However, many including Sebastian Coe insist that Semenya should only compete if she takes hormone-suppressing drugs.

When all three athletes were asked about the controversy and whether they had been made to take medication, Semenya replied: “Tonight is all about performance, we’re not here to talk about the IAAF, some speculations, this press conference is all about the 800m we ran today”. Sport is all about uniting people and not discriminating. “It’s all about sports”.

Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi was a distant second in 1:56.49 and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui was third in 1:56.89. My coach told me to be patient and wait for the right moment.

“It’s a very peculiar situation, nearly unheard of in sports as far I as I know”, said Luxembourg runner Charline Mathias, who did not make the semis. “We just have to utilize it”.

Semenya, 25, first shot to global stardom in 2009 when she won the 800-metres at the World Championships in Berlin.

Her competitors had raised concern that the condition gave her an unfair advantage. She has, understandably, always run from excruciatingly personal and intrusive questions about whether she was born with internal testes, no uterus and has high levels of testosterone – in short, absurd questions about matters that are nobody’s business but her own.

The rule was appealed previous year by sprinter Dutee Chand of India, who ran here in the preliminary heats of the 100 meters and the 400 relay and finished close to last in both.

Semenya and other female athletes are believed to be intersex and benefiting from the elevated testosterone their bodies produce naturally.

“Every athlete’s dream is to win a medal, especially in the Olympics”, said Semenya, whose winning time was two seconds adrift of the world record of 1:53:28, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova, running for Czechoslovakia, in July 1983.

Since then Semenya has been head and shoulders above her rivals and is nearly a full second quicker than anyone else this season.

Semenya’s winning time of 1 minute, 55.28 seconds was one of the top 20 times ever in the two-lap race. “I think that’s what we need to keep doing”, she added.

“I just want to be a better athlete”.

South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) says its impressed with the medal count, and Lewis predicts the tally will be even higher in at the next Games with new talent emerging. But though the debate around her will continue until the authorities find a solution to whether the testosterone her condition creates must be controlled, her performance was handsome in its athleticism and intelligence. “It was to be expected that everybody would be there”.