ATHLETICS South Africa's claim that disgraced coach Dr Ekkart Arbeit, a doping expert in the former East Germany, has had "nothing to do'' with gender misfit Caster Semenya has been disputed by a team member.
International scrutiny has followed the most dominant victory in any women's event at last month's world athletics championships in Berlin, where the 18-year-old Semenya beat the defending titleholder by 20m to win the 800m.
When preliminary tests showed Semenya has three times the level of testosterone found in a "normal'' female, the International Association of Athletics Federations was left to decide whether this was a case of biological abnormality or doping.
Full test results conducted by a panel of up to a dozen experts is not expected to be available for several weeks. But the fact ASA has employed Dr Arbeit, the former East German head coach and Stasi spy, for several years has raised suspicions as to whether doping may be involved. However, ASA president Leonard Chuene was dismissive of the speculation, saying Arbeit had had nothing to do with Semenya.
But the South African team member toldThe Daily Telegraph via email that Arbeit was indeed fully in control of Semenya's training preparation. "Caster trained with Ekkart while she was at the training camp in Germany,'' the South African source explained.
"It was very strange; Caster's coach was the only personal coach of possible medallists who was not present at the training camps in Germany or at the actual world championships.
"ASA covered the costs of all the other relevant personal coaches of Khotso (long jump medallist Godfrey Mokoena), (men's 800m winner Mbulaeni) Mulaudzi, and (hurdler) LJ van Zyl even had the costs of his own physiotherapist paid for by ASA.
"Ekkart and team management knew there would be trouble about Semenya and numerous times our coaches and officials were told not to discuss anything about Caster with anyone.''
