Dressed in a black sleeveless dress, controversial 800m women’s world champion Caster Semenya graced the front cover of a lifestyle magazine in her native South Africa on Tuesday under the headline, “Wow, look at Caster now!”
Semenya, whose gender was called into question last month at the world athletics championships in Berlin, pulled on stilettos and several short dresses for her makeover from You magazine.
“I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses, but I never get the chance,” the 18-year-old, who wore make-up and posed with a manicured hand on her hip, told You.
Hours before her victory in the 800m final in Berlin, world athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, announced it would be testing Semenya’s gender after she improved her personal best by more than eight seconds in a year.
Semenya, who grew up in a village in northern Limpopo province, emerged from relative obscurity to easily claim the titles of African junior champion in Mauritius in July and world champion in Berlin.
The IAAF, which was slammed for publicizing the tests and has since apologized, has yet to announce the results.
Semenya’s coach, Wilfred Daniels, resigned last week, saying that while the IAAF’s treatment of Semenya was “insulting,” Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) handling of the affair had also been “atrocious.”
Daniels said Semenya had also been subjected to gender testing by the ASA, without her knowledge. The ASA has denied the allegations.
Speaking to You about the debacle, the shy sports science student with the broad shoulders and deep voice said: “I see it all as a joke; it doesn’t upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself.”
Sales of the magazine were brisk at one Johannesburg supermarket, where a teller remarked on scanning the front cover, which showed a smiling Semenya bedecked with gold jewelry reclining in a settee: “She looks better now.”
The results of Semenya’s gender verification tests are due to arrive at the IAAF any day, but the outcome is unlikely to see her stripped of her gold medal.
The tests are to determine if Semenya has a medical condition that blurs her gender and gives her an unfair advantage. The definitive outcome will be determined by the IAAF within two weeks after a team of experts analyzes the data.
IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told reporters on Tuesday that Semenya was likely to keep the medal she won by 2.45 seconds in a year-best 1 minute, 55.45 seconds.
“There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this,” Davies said. “This is not a doping case at present, so it shouldn’t be considered as one where you have a retroactive stripping of results.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS