JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The doctor who advised against Caster Semenya running at the 2009 world championships and foresaw the gender-test controversy that engulfed her was announced as a nominee Wednesday to lead South Africa’s track federation.
Dr. Harold Adams was one of five nominees who will stand in elections for Athletics South Africa president.
He was a South African team doctor when a teenage Semenya won the 800-meter world title in Germany five years ago. She was then sidelined for a year after undergoing gender tests.
A South African Olympic committee report found in 2010 that Adams had advised then ASA President Leonard Chuene that Semenya be withdrawn from the worlds in Berlin because of results of gender tests done on her in South Africa just before the championships. Chuene ignored the advice, the report found, and also lied about the tests he ordered be conducted on Semenya, who was 18 at the time.
South Africa’s track federation has been beset by problems since the Semenya scandal and Chuene was fired in 2011 for misconduct.
One of Adams’ opponents for president of ASA is incumbent James Evans, whose own administration has been hampered by problems. An interim committee claimed it had removed Evans from office, which he denied. He refused to recognize the authority of the interim committee, prompting the IAAF to become involved and ASA to plan new elections.
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