uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/19082009/58/berli...er-test-semenya.html

I have to say that I feel sorry for Caster Semenya, she has just won the World 800m title and yet all the press talk about is the accusation that she isn't in fact a woman. She is currently undergoing a gender test to determine if she is a woman or not. Apparently this takes several weeks.

Forgive me for been ignorant, but couldn't they just get her to strip off and observe the genitalia on display, rather than taking weeks over it. failing that then surely receipt of a valid birth certificate would be sufficient. When she won, she barely celebrated and there were no cheers, which is a damn shame. She is already been perceived as guilty before been tested.

Sex changes replace your original bits with new bits ! that are every bit as convincing supposedly !! So the only way to tell is through chromosomes testing and DNA.

The Police have a transgender group now !!

The link needs fixing. I had to copy paste and leave off the final "[url]".

Similar thing happened in a veteran women's race in my region a few years ago. A grandmother won it but was considered to be too muscular for a woam and so she had to face claims that she was really a man and wait through a full investigation before being confirmed as the legitemate winner. I would have thought the fact that she was a grandmother would have been sufficient.

Link corrected Emma!

Terribly un-SPORTing to announce an inquiry before the race commenced.

The question of gender is not always as simple as you might think. One in 1000 babies are born with gender abnormalities, and others develop anomalies later. It is possible to have a mixture of XX and XY chromosones in different cells.

The poor girl will have to undergo tests for weeks before a decision is made, so you have to feel some sympathy, and the timing of the IAAF press release was insensitive, and must have spoilt her big night. On the other hand, she was unheard of two weeks ago, and has improved her personal best by eight seconds in just one year, which in itself is an implausible anomaly which needs to be investigated.