Seb Coe hits out at 'second-rate sociologists' over sport's gender eligibility rules

Seb Coe hit out at “second-rate sociologists” who question the sport’s gender eligibility rules on the same day that Caster Semenya flopped when returning to the global stage for the first time in five years, trailing in 13th place of 18 runners in the World Championships 5,000 metres heats.

As an athlete with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), and therefore possessing higher levels of naturally occurring testosterone than women who fit within the permitted range, double Olympic and triple world 800m champion Semenya is unable to compete over distances from 400m to one mile unless she takes hormone medication.

Refusing to do so, she first attempted to become a 200m runner before switching to the 5,000m when that failed. The South African missed out on automatic qualification for these World Championships when only finishing sixth at last month’s African Championships, but was able to belatedly qualify despite a lowly world ranking of 81 thanks to a number of dropouts.

Advancing to the final was always likely to prove beyond her, and she clocked 15 minutes 46.12 seconds - almost a minute behind Ethiopian winner Gudaf Tsegay.

“It was hot, I could not keep up with the pace, I tried to stick as much as I can, but you know, it is a part of the game,” said Semenya, 31.

“I think it is great to be able to run here. Just being able to finish the 5k, for me it is a blessing. I am learning and I am willing to learn even more.”

Earlier in the day, World Athletics president Coe insisted the governing body’s controversial DSD rules were correct. “We’ve always been guided by the science, and science is pretty clear: we know that testosterone is the key determinant in performance,” he said.

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