CAPE TOWN- According to a report by Sports24, a sport scientist did tell them Caster Semenya could run up too, seven seconds slower under new rules requiring females athletes lower her natural testosterone levels to race internationally, a prominent sports scientist has predicted.
The rule change announced on Thursday by the world athletics governing body, the IAAF, announcing that a female classification for an athlete with differences of sexual development (or DSDs) have bee n introduced. Such athletes, including Semenya, will have to reduce and then maintain their testosterone levels to no greater than 5nmol/L by November 1, 2018 if they want to compete in events ranging from 400m to a mile.
The IAAF believes these new rule changes will, “preserve fair and meaningful competition in the female classification” explaining that female athletes with high testosterone have an advantage of up to 9% over women with normal levels of testosterone.
The move however has divide the sport fraternity, sport scientist Ross Tucker said the new rules will significantly hamper athletes like Semenya.
If this policy passes, then I would predict that Semenya will be 5 to 7s slower over 800, based on what we say from 2013 to 2015, when the Chand case set the previous policy (10nmol/L in all events) aside. I would imagine that lawyers already have a case ready to submit though.
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) April 25, 2018
The other really interesting thing is that guided by the new IOC transgender policy that lowers the upper limit for T to 5nmol/L, the IAAF are setting their limit at 5nmol/L. It used to be 10. That will slow the times of these athletes down even more than it did in the past.
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) April 25, 2018
If the new policy faces a legal challenge, this is an obvious point of contention – a 9% advantage is all good and well, but where has it actually been found? And bear in mind, I’m sympathetic, I think a policy to lower T is the best solution to this problem, as stated for years!
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) April 25, 2018
Photo Credit- plus.lesoir.be
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