Athletics SA has issued a rebuke of the International Association of Athletics Federations and says the body failed to prove its case in the appeal hearing of double Olympic champion Caster Semenya.

According to a Saturday Star report, Athletics SA also claims the federation has sought to further amend regulations that would limit the testosterone levels of athletes classed as having differences in sexual development (DSD).

It is that reason that ASA says is the cause for the delay in the announcement of a verdict by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that had been postponed from the original deadline of 26 March to the end of April. Under new rules, athletes classed as having DSD would have to reduce their blood testosterone level to below five nanomoles per litre for a continuous period of six months before they could compete.

They must then maintain it below that level continuously.

‘The IAAF was required to place empirical evidence … to establish that the naturally occurring testosterone levels of athletes targeted by the DSD Regulations confer a significant performance advantage … which would justify limiting their eligibility to compete in the manner that the IAAF seeks to do through the DSD regulations,’ the ASA said.

It added the IAAF had again failed to do so in the proceedings before CAS, and had sought rather to contend that female athletes targeted by the DSD regulations are in fact ‘biologically male’.

Full Saturday Star report (subscription needed)