South Africa Female Athlete Champion Returns Home
Caster
Semenya, the South African World champion runner,
has returned home as her victory overshadowed by a
gender testing row.
Semenya, who won the women's world 800 metres title
with a stunning performance in Berlin, last week,
was greeted by thousands at Johannesburg's OR Tambo
International Airport.
Some
held up placards reading "Casterology Science of
Running" and "Caster First Lady of Sport".
South Africans have rallied around their star
athlete. But the controversy may have also touched a
raw nerve in a country where race is still a highly
sensitive issue after decades of apartheid, which
ended in 1994.
Semenya's ordeal turned political just after she
landed.
Anger
Furious South Africans have accused the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
of everything from racism to imperialism for
ordering a test after her rapid improvement raised
its suspicions.
Julius Malema, firebrand leader of the ruling ANC's
militant Youth League, complained that not enough
whites turned up at the airport to show their
support for Semenya.
"Where are the white South Africans? ... If it was
rugby they were going to be here,"
he told the crowd, referring to the white-dominated
sport.
Reuters/
Qasim /Funke