Courier de l'Égypte - Semenya set to end 5-year world championship absence in Eugene

NYSE - LSE
CMSC -1.41% 19.8 $
RBGPF 0% 75.17 $
RIO 0.51% 84.97 $
RYCEF -1.94% 17.56 $
CMSD -0.75% 19.93 $
GSK -1.25% 50.6 $
AZN -0.69% 185.48 $
NGG -0.43% 83.26 $
BTI 0.38% 61.05 $
BCE -0.6% 21.51 $
RELX 0.47% 40.1 $
BP 1.5% 45.26 $
VOD 0.9% 15.64 $
JRI -1.02% 11.71 $
BCC -1.29% 69.52 $
Semenya set to end 5-year world championship absence in Eugene
Semenya set to end 5-year world championship absence in Eugene / Photo: Fabien Dubessay - AFP

Semenya set to end 5-year world championship absence in Eugene

South Africa's double Olympic 800 metres champion Caster Semenya looks set to make her first appearance at a World Championships in five years in the 5,000 metres after being named in the list of registered athletes by World Athletics on Saturday.

Text size:

Semenya initially missed qualification when she only finished sixth at the African Championships last month but has benefitted from a number of athletes dropping out.

The World Championships run from July 15-24 in Eugene, Oregon.

The 31-year-old last competed at a world championships in London in 2017 where she won her third 800m world crown.

A year later she won double gold in the 800m and 1500m at the Commonwealth Games which is the last time she represented South Africa in a global international competition.

Semenya was forced to switch from her favoured distance to the longer event due to gender eligibility rules that required her to take testosterone-reducing drugs to compete in races between 400m to a mile.

World Athletics bar women athletes with high testosterone levels from competing in shorter races because the governing body says the hormone increases muscle mass and oxygen uptake.

Semenya, who became a world champion at 18 years of age in Berlin in 2009, has made several unsuccessful legal attempts to overturn the ruling.

In a bid to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, she even dropped down to the 200m, but was unsuccessful in her attempts to qualify.

U.Adel--CdE