From Inside the Games
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today added another six months to the deadline for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to provide scientific evidence for its currently suspended 2011 regulations over testosterone limits for female athletes.
A CAS statement revealed that the IAAF had submitted revised regulations on September 29 last year and supporting evidence that would apply only to female track events between 400 metres and one mile.
A CAS panel has apparently determined that the IAAF’s supporting evidence is designed to support the original hyperandrogenism regulations as well as the revised regulations.
“However,” the statement from the Lausanne-based organisation reads, “the Panel has made no ruling at this stage on the sufficiency of that evidence.”
So the IAAF now has until June 19 this year to decide whether or not to maintain its support of the original hyperandrogenism regulations – for which further evidence still appears to be required – or to advise CAS on how it intends to implement the revised regulations in line with its September 29 submission.
In practical terms, this means that runners such as South Africa’s world and Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya – whose 2009 world title win and subsequent sex verification test effectively led to the IAAF formulating its androgenism regulations – will continue to be free to compete without being limited or medically restricted.
