ATHLETICS NEWS - Double Olympic 800-metres champion Caster Semenya is "optimistic" of success in her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) over eligibility regulations in athletics for female classification.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) contends that Semenya and other female athletes that are classed as having differences in sexual development (DSDs) gain an unfair advantage due to their higher testosterone levels, but only in races between 400 and 1 000-metres.
Under its new rules, which are currently suspended pending the outcome of the Cas case, athletes classed as having DSDs must medically reduce their blood testosterone level for a continuous period of six months before they can compete.
"Caster Semenya remains optimistic that Cas will declare the IAAF’s Regulations unlawful, invalid and of no effect," Semenya’s lawyers said in a statement on Friday, confirming at the same time that the athlete had made additional submissions to CAS following "post-hearing communications from the IAAF".
They did not go into detail as to what those submissions were in relation to.
