While Caster Semenya’s case at the European Court of Human Rights is taking on a “positive trend”, it won’t be concluded before the Tokyo Olympics.
Semenya’s lawyer, Greg Nott, told Independent Media yesterday that the overall goal is to have the matter decided before the next world championships, which take place in Oregon, United States in July 2022.
The 30-year-old double Olympic champion in the 800m is still hoping to make it to Tokyo this year, but in the 5 000m. She will try to qualify in the long-distance event again on Friday at a specially-arranged meeting in Durban, where she needs to finish in 15 minutes and 10 seconds (15:10.00).
Her current personal best is 15:52.28, but that was at altitude in Pretoria, and it is hoped that running at the coast would assist in running a faster time.
Semenya is challenging World Athletics’ new rules with regards to athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD), where the governing body requires such runners to take medication and/or undergo surgery to reduce their naturally-occurring testosterone levels to below 5 nanolitres per litre of blood.
She lost her previous cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Court, and has now turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
But Nott says: “All indications are that the case is going along quite civilly and quite favourably. I can’t say [when the case will be concluded], but it will certainly happen hopefully before the world championships next year. But the process is unfolding favourably.”