Egypt

Berlin, Germany - Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia looked as if he had left himself open to defeat in the 5000 metres, by doing the majority of the leading at too leisurely a pace, on the final, Day Nine of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics. But Bekele obviously wanted to do it the hard way. He didn’t even try to wind it up with a kilometre to go, but left it ‘til the last lap, even the final 200 metres. Defending champion, and most experienced man in the field, Bernard Lagat had run cannily, and was poised on Bekele’s shoulder, with half a lap left. Lagat duly kicked past into the straight, but Bekele was equal to the challenge, and eased away to victory in 13:17.09, punching the air in an unprecedented display of satisfaction as he crossed the line. He had run the last lap in 53.81sec, and added the 5000m title to the 10,000m gold he won earlier in the week, the first man in championships history to double. Lagat won silver, to go with his 1500m bronze, in 13:17.33, and bronz...

By now, many people have heard of Caster Semenya. The 18 year-old South African runner first made the news for her stellar run in the African Junior Championships, but had her victory tainted by competitors who insisted that the IAFF, (the International Association of Athletics Federations), should test Semenya’s gender to see if she is 100% female, not just physically, but biologically Rather than a mere physical exam, where genitalia is the determining factor, the IAFF is calling for an months-long process of gender testing, involving several specialists and exhaustive testing. I find it disturbing that anyone, least of all an 18 year-old, would be subjected to forced gender testing in order to appease their competitors. It might be another matter if Semenya was a boy disguised as a girl in order to compete, but that’s not the accusation. Semenya was born and raised as a girl, and those in the position to know — her parents and a former roommate — attest that she does not have, and h...