'She's all woman': Mother of athletics golden girl Caster Semenya rejects claims her daughter's a man ...

[Peikko 1,575]

Controversial runner Caster Semenya's mother has hit out at claims that her daughter's 800m at the World Athletics Championships was invalid - because she is actually a man.

Caster Semenya, 18, stunned a crowd of thousands in Berlin last night by storming to success in the 800 metres final in which Britain's Jennifer Meadows won a bronze.

It was the South African's first major international sporting competition. She won in one minute and 55.45 seconds - beating defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei, a Kenyan, by a massive 2.45 seconds.

But the athlete's triumph has been overshadowed by growing accusations that she is in fact a man.

Yesterday the world athletics body, the IAAF, confirmed it asked South Africa to test their star 18-year-old's gender three weeks ago.

The complex series of tests were prompted after her muscular physique and extraordinary performances sparked speculation over whether she really was female.

If the tests prove she is in fact male, she will lose her medal.

But her mother Dorcus Semenya today defended her athlete daughter.

'I am not even worried about that because I know who and what my child is,' she said defiantly.

'Mokgadi Caster is a girl and no one can change that.'

Speaking from her home in the rural village of Seshego, near Polokwane in South Africa's Limpopo province, the mother-of-six added: 'If you go at my home village and ask any of my neighbours, they would tell you that Mokgadi is a girl.'

The part-time carer told South Africa's Star newspaper: 'They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl. I am not concerned about such things.'

Meanwhile Semenya's grandmother Maphuthi Sekgala said she been teased about her masculine appearance since the day she joined the village soccer team as the only girl.

Mrs Sekgala, 80, said: 'I know she's a woman. I raised her myself.'

When global speculation began mounting over Semenya's gender earlier this week, she rang from Germany to speak to her grandmother in the village of Fairlie, near Polokwane in Limpopo province.

Describing the conversation on Monday night, Mrs Sekgala told South Africa's Times newspaper: 'She called me after the heats and told me that they think she's a man.

'What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man? It is God who made her look that way.'

But Semenya has a thick skin after coping with years of taunting from other pupils at school.

Mrs Sekgala added: 'If the teasing hurt her, she kept the hurt to herself and didn't show what she was feeling.'

Semenya's father also denied his daughter was a man.

Jacob Semenya said: 'She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times.'

In an interview with South African newspaper The Sowetan, he said he watched his daughter's stunning 800 metres victory in Berlin last night and was positive the results of the IAAF gender tests would show she was a true female running hero.

He added: 'I have no doubt she is going to make us all proud. For the first time South Africans have someone to be proud of and detractors are already shouting wolf. It is unfair.

'I wish they would leave my daughter alone.'

Semenya's sister Nkele, 16, also defended her legitimacy as a female and said: 'People must stop calling her a man because we are proud of her.'

The athlete's best friend Deborah Morolong, 22, said Semenya never had any interest in boyfriends but never bowed to accusations she was not female.

Miss Morolong, 22, who attended Nthema High School in Fairlie with Semenya, said: 'She never had a boyfriend. She doesn't like boys.

'I think they are saying [she is a man] out of jealousy. It really hurts me when they say that about her.'

Meanwhile Semenya's former headmaster said he was 'very, very proud' of the dedicated runner - but admitted she reached grade 11 before he realised she was a girl.

Eric Modiba, head of the Nthema Secondary School, from where Semenya graduated last year, added: 'She was always rough and played with the boys. She liked soccer and she wore pants to school. She never wore a dress.

'It was only in Grade 11 that I realised she's a girl.'

In an interview with South Africa's Beeld newspaper, Mr Modiba explained that Semenya wore the male version of the uniform at school - the yellow shirts and grey pants.

All the other girls wear reddish-brown skirts and yellow shirts.

The controversy has prompted fury in South Africa, with a flood of support for Semenya overflowing on the internet. Many South Africans accused the IAAF of racism.

'We condemn the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style. Such comments can only serve to portray women as being weak,' the governing party African National Congress said in a statement.

'Caster is not the only woman athlete with a masculine build and the International Association of Athletics Federation should know better.'

Semenya was banned from speaking to the media following her sensational final race.

Today the teenager's coach branded the timing of the speculation over Semenya's gender 'suspicious'.

Michael Seme, who coaches the runner at the University of Pretoria, said: 'I have been working with Caster since January and I can tell you now I have been training a girl, not a boy.'

Speaking in an interview with the Cape Times newspaper, he added: 'It is very upsetting that she has to undergo all these just hours before the most important race of her career.

'This is psychologically disruptive.

'While the IAAF is quite within its rights to conduct tests on any medal winner, the timing is suspicious. After all, she competed in the Junior Championships in Poland early this year and won. I would have expected that thorough tests for drugs and even gender were done then.'

Mr Davies said it had not been suggested that Semenya was a man who had cheated by concealing his true sex, but that she could suffer from a genetic disorder which means she has both male and female chromosomes.

He added that there was a clear protocol for such tests, with a team of three doctors examining her internally and externally.

And he emphasised that the tests she is undergoing are not compulsory.

Enlarge Meanwhile Polish athlete Ewa Klobukowska was revealed to be a man in 1967

'This is a medical condition,' he said. 'It is nothing that she has done. There is a need to make sure rules are followed.

'We are more concerned for the person and not to make this as something that is humiliating.'

Pending the results of the test, Semenya could be disqualified from last night's race and her gold medal taken away from her.

The claims about her gender were greeted with fury in her home country, where some fans claimed they were little more than racist slander.

Gender testing was introduced at the 1966 European Track and Field Championships and first used at the Olympics during the 1968 Mexico City games.

International Olympic Committee regulations require all athletes to compete under their gender at birth.

However, experts fear Semenya, who has competed internationally throughout her teens, should be tested to check whether she might suffer from from a rare condition in which individuals can exhibit both male and female chromosomes.

A source said: 'In a few rare individuals there is a grey area between male and female. It's possible that she falls into this bracket.

'The gender verification process takes weeks as it is extremely complex.

'If there were ever any suspicions regarding this girl, tests should have been done at the earliest opportunity to save her any embarrassment.'

If Semenya was proven to be a male she would be the latest in a string of gender fraud cases in international athletics.

One of the most famous cases saw female German athlete Dora Ratjen revealed as a man named Hermann following high jump success at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1938 European Championships.

The athlete later claimed he had been forced to disguise himself as a female by the Nazi government.

The first athlete to be caught after the gender tests were introduced was Polish runner Ewa Klobukowska, who took gold in the women's 4 x 100 metres relay and bronze in the 100 metres at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo.

She was later unmasked as a he after failing a chromosome test in 1967.

South African athletics fans today expressed their anger at the claims about Semenya's gender.

Dozens posted comments on newspaper websites, with some claiming the speculation was racially motivated.

One commenter, who did not leave their name, wrote: 'It just disappoints me every time that a good South African athlete comes around, there always seem to be questions.

'She looks manly, of course, but is she the only athlete who looks manly? I don't think so. Just because she has facial hair means absolutely nothing. Would they have tested her if she wasn't African?'

Another, 'Norman', added: 'What bull man! Our Caster is a woman, these European people cannot handle the fact that an African can actually be a champion in something and will always try to bring us down.'

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[Chica Yeyé 41]

Pictures Cleo! Pictures!

Edited August 20, 2009 by *Len*

[Peikko 1,575]

The theory that she might have both x/y chromosomes is plausible, but this should never have happened at an international meet - the South African Athletic Authorities should have taken care of this before now.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So if you abnormal (mutant) DNA you can't participate in professional sports?

[Peikko 1,575]

Presumably not. Discrimination!

Actually, while it would be terribly sad, I could understand the rationale.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Presumably not. Discrimination!

Actually, while it would be terribly sad, I could understand the rationale.

There was a case like this a few years ago - about a female runner in a games for older people. But that lady looked like Worzel Gummage.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Private Pike

[ddartt1 2]

She really looks like a man!!! B)