South Africa - athletics

Semenya returns home to hero's welcome

Article published on the 2009-08-25 Latest update 2009-08-25 12:04 TU

Caster Semenya gestures to her fans at the OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg on 25 August, 2009
(Photos: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)

Thousands of South Africans welcomed Caster Semenya home as she returned to Johannesburg airport on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old won the women’s 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships but her victory was marred by the news that she had been asked to undergo a gender test.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that Semenya must undergo tests to verify her gender shortly before she won the race in a time of 1minute 55.45 seconds.

On Tuesday, people sang and danced at the airport to greet Semenya and the other athletes on their return. Supporters waved placards that read "Our first lady of sport" and "100 per cent female woman".

Dorcas Semenya, mother of Caster Semenya, displays the front page of a local newspaper at Ga-mmasehlong village in Northern province on 21 August, 2009.
(Photos: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)

Her arrival was broadcast live on television and police made special traffic arrangements around the airport to accommodate the crowds.

Men’s 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and long jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena were also on the flight. The athletes were due to meet President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria later on Tuesday before parading through the streets.

The IAAF said they asked that Semenya undergo a gender test because of the vast improvements she made this year. But South Africa has branded the debate “sexist” and “racist”.

"Caster is a girl...I am not worried about that too much,” her uncle Ben Semenya told AFP at the airport. “Caster is like my child. I know where she comes from. For myself, I know Caster is a girl."

The Times newspaper ran a souvenir poster headlined "Welcome home Caster, our champ" with a life-sized portrait of Semenya.

"We in South Africa have no doubts," its editorial read. "It is the ghoulish, white-coated scientists of the IAAF who would do well to look into their hearts and ask whether the overwhelming evidence of Caster's life as a girl in South Africa does not count as science."