SAfrica track chief keeps job after admitting to lying about gender tests on top runner

SAfrican track chief keeps job after sex-test flap

JOHANNESBURG — The head of South African track will keep his job even though he admitted to lying about his role in gender tests done on runner Caster Semenya.

Leonard Chuene retained his leadership position after Athletics South Africa held a closed-door council meeting on Thursday. The ASA released a brief statement saying it “unanimously expressed confidence in the current ASA leadership.”

The move comes despite calls from the government sports ministry and several ASA opposition parties to fire Chuene.

Chris Britz, a member of ASA’s decision-making board to which the council reports, told The Associated Press, “Mr. Chuene is the president of Athletics South Africa. I can confirm that.”

Chuene refused to comment when contacted by the AP, saying the ASA council had told him only Britz could speak on the matter.

For days, politicians, newspaper editorials and other sports bodies have called for Chuene to be fired. Those demands came after he admitted at a news conference on Saturday that his repeated denials of knowledge of gender tests done on Semenya in South Africa were untrue. Chuene said he lied to protect the athlete’s privacy.

Track officials could be overruled by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, which is conducting its own investigation into the Semenya case. In Thursday’s statement, ASA said it would “fully cooperate with any statutory commission of enquiry.”

ASA members who took part in the meeting refused to speak to reporters afterward. Three cars that left the hotel near Johannesburg’s airport displayed computer-printed signs declaring “100 percent Chuene” and “hands off our president.”

Semenya won the 800-meter race at the world championships in Berlin in August. The International Association of Athletics Federations said before the final they had ordered gender tests because questions had been raised about her muscular physique and stunning improvement in times. Such matters are usually kept confidential, and the IAAF has been criticized in South Africa and abroad for going public in Semenya’s case.

The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that Semenya has both male and female characteristics. It says it is reviewing test results and will issue a decision in November on whether she will be allowed to compete in women’s events.