Caster Semenya: Olympic and World champion back over 300m as doubts over future continue
Last Updated: 15/02/20 9:56am
Caster Semenya has vowed she is not finished with athletics after a low-profile return to the track in Johannesburg on Friday night.
Semenya broke the South African record over 300m at a University of Johannesburg meeting, her first appearance since last June when new World Athletics rules over testosterone levels in female athletes came into force.
Those mean Semenya, who would need to medically reduce her inflated natural testosterone levels, is banned from participating in races from 400m up to a mile, including the 800m distance where she had become the sport's dominant athlete.
Semenya has been legally identified as female her entire life but World Athletics considers her biologically male - possessing an unfair advantage over other female runners - which has caused consistent anger in a bitter battle through numerous courts, both sporting and legal.
She was denied the chance to defend her world title in Doha last year and remains in a legal battle in Switzerland's Supreme Court to try and overturn the ban in time to compete at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she would also be defending champion.
Semenya clocked 36.78 seconds in Friday's race, and said afterwards: "Track and field, you will still see my face. That is all I can say for now."
Without a positive result in the Swiss appeal before July, Semenya would be forced to drop to 200m or make an extreme rise to the 5,000m to compete in Japan.
The 29-year-old would need to take more than a second off her personal best (24.26 seconds) at the sprint distance to meet the Olympic qualifying standard.
