Caster's Clear To Run, So Get Off Her Back!

One of the more unedifying moments of the sporting weekend was the reaction of some of the beaten athletes in Berlin after Caster Semenya won the 800 metres women's race at the Berlin Diamond League meet. Semenya, you will recall, took the world title last year at the same track in stunning fashion and then was subjected to a very public investigation into her sex, with the notion that she possessed more male genes than female. As humiliating as this was for the teenager she was at least cleared to continue in her sport and yesterday, after a long lay-off, she bounced back in style to suggest that, come the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October, she will be hot favourite to add the gold medal to her world title. And in doing so she will almost certainly invite the snipers to take more pot shots at her, as they did yesterday in the German capital, as one after another of the beaten runners asked whether she should, in fact, be running in the men's race, adding that she is just too fast for the rest of them. Apart from the fact that maybe they should focus on running faster themselves, they should also ensure that not only are their own consciences crystal clear but also ask if they have at any stage queried other athletes for the obvious doping abuse that has taken place in the recent past. Or does it only count when the athlete in question is better than them?