Semenya accuses IAAF of naming witnesses

Caster Semenya has said the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) breached confidentiality regulations ahead of her appeal hearing that started yesterday where she is fighting for her athletics future.

The appeal, being heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, could be a landmark case for the sport with wide-reaching consequences.

Semenya believes the IAAF breached confidentiality rules of the hearing after they released the names of five expert witnesses they will bring to the CAS to testify on their behalf.

Influence public opinion

The IAAF have named Dr Angelica Hirschberg, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, as a witness, along with David Handelsman, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Andrology at the University of Sydney, and physicist Joanna Harper.

South African advocate Norman Arendse looks on as he arrives for a landmark hearing of South African 800 meters Olympic champion Caster Semenya at the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in Lausanne on February 18, 2019 [Courtesy]

The other two witnesses will be Doriane Coleman, a Professor of Law at Duke Law School, and Richard Auchus, a former Professor of pharmacology at the University of Michigan.

“The arbitration proceedings are subject to strict confidentiality provisions and this information should not have been released‚“ Semenya’s lawyers said in a statement on yesterday.

“Ms Semenya believes the IAAF press release is a clear breach of the confidentiality provisions that was orchestrated in an effort to influence public opinion.”