by Catherine Sackville-Scott

Questions about the sex of Caster Semenya were swirling around the athlete well ahead of the 2009 World Championships in Athletics last month, says veteran South African runner, Frith Van Der Merwe. 

Semenya’s sex was first raised in the media after the 18-year-old athlete won gold at the 800 metres women’s race in Berlin, Germany.  But Van Der Merwe, who is still well-connected in South Africa’s running circles, says young athletes and parents had expressed concerns months earlier.

Van der Merwe experienced the hype and pressure of IAAF World Championships in 1993. She still holds the women’s records for the Comrades and Two Oceans marathons, both of which she achieved in 1989.

She said that Athletics South Africa should have sorted out testing privately and discretely before Semenya left for Berlin.

Van der Merwe, who has been a Grahamstown resident for three years, teaches English at St. Andrews College.