Caster Semenya’s first appearance in the world championships since 2017 saw her knocked out without fuss or fanfare after finishing 45 seconds off qualifying for Saturday’s 5,000m final.
In temperatures that hit 32C, the South African finished 13th out of 16 runners in her heat in a time of 15min 46.12sec, almost a minute behind the winner, Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia.
But she struck an upbeat note afterwards. “I’m cooking,” she told reporters. “It was hot and I could not keep up with the pace.
“I think it is great to be able to run here. Just being able to finish the 5km, for me it is a blessing. I am learning and I am willing to learn even more.”
Semenya had previously won the world title at 800m three times, including in her last appearance at London 2017, but is now barred from running international events from 400m to a mile unless she takes medication to reduce her testosterone levels.
That is because in 2019 the court of arbitration for sport ruled that 46 XY 5-ARD individuals with a difference of sex development, such as Semenya, “enjoy a significant sporting advantage … over 46 XX competitors without such DSD” due to biology.
There has naturally been considerable sympathy for the South African, as she was assigned as female at birth and has faced enormous challenges in her career.
But Cas noted that Semenya’s advantages came because individuals with 5-ARD “have what is commonly identified as the male chromosomal sex (XY and not XX), male gonads (testes not ovaries) and levels of circulating testosterone in the male range (7.7-29.4 nmol/L), which are significantly higher than the female range (0.06-1.68 nmol/L)”.
Experts from both sides also agreed the other advantages included “greater lean body mass, larger hearts, higher cardiac output … and larger V02 max than 46 XX individuals”.
Semenya’s appearance at these world championships came as the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, gave his clearest indication yet that the governing body would do more to protect female sport.
“We’ve always been guided by the science, and the science is pretty clear: we know that testosterone is the key determinant in performance,” he said.
“I’m really over having any more of these discussions with second-rate sociologists who sit there trying to tell me or the science community that there may be some issue. There isn’t. Testosterone is the key determinant in performance.”
Coe insisted it was his responsibility to “protect the integrity of women’s sport”.
“We have two categories in our sport: one is age and one is gender,” he added. “Age because we think it’s better that Olympic champions don’t run against 14-year-olds in community sports. And gender because if you don’t have a gender separation, no woman would ever win another sporting event.”
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Elsewhere, on an otherwise low-key day of action, Britain’s Aimee Pratt ran the race of her life to finish seventh in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase final in 9:15.64 – breaking her national record by three seconds in a race won by Norah Kipruto.
There was also an impressive performance by Matthew Hudson-Smith who qualified second fastest for the men’s 400m, despite stomach issues in the home straight. The other Briton in the semi-finals, Alex Haydock-Wilson, missed out despite running a personal best of 45.08.
However there was bad news for Britain as Max Burgin, who has run the fastest 800m in the world this year, was forced to pull out before Wednesday’s heats due to injury.
• This article was amended on 21 July 2022 to revise a reference to Caster Semenya’s assignment as female at birth; and to clarify that Pratt’s race was a steeplechase event.
