Semenya remains confident,wonders about gender fuss

“She said to me she doesn’t see what the big deal is all about,” South Africa manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said Thursday. “She believes it is God given talent and she will exercise it.”

Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said Semenya was thrilled with winning her race and picking up her first world title. “She was over the moon,” Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said.

Semenya wasn’t the only one wondering what all the fuss was about. Her father,Jacob,dismissed the speculation. “She is my little girl,” he told the Sowetan newspaper. “I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times.”

Semenya’s paternal grandmother,Maputhi Sekgala,said the controversy “doesn’t bother me that much because I know she’s a woman. 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,” Sekgala told the South African daily The Times.

Stunning improvements

About three weeks ago,the IAAF asked the South African athletics federation to conduct the gender test after Semenya burst onto the scene by posting a world leading time of 1 minute,56.72 seconds at the African junior championships in Bambous,Maruitius. The teenager’s stunning improvement in times,along with her muscular build and deep voice,sparked speculation about her gender.

Gideon Sam,the president of South Africa’s Olympic governing body,congratulated Semenya on a “remarkable achievement.”

“We condemn the way she was linked with such media speculation and allegation,especially on a day she ran in the final of her first major world event,” Sam said. “”It’s the biggest day of her life.”