South Africa: Semenya: Swiss court temporarily suspends IAAF testosterone rules

Yann Caradec/Flickr
Caster Semenya at the Meeting de Paris on June 30, 2018.
4 June 2019
allAfrica.com

Cape Town — Switzerland's top court has temporarily suspended International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules that oblige athletes including double Olympic champion Caster Semenya to lower their testosterone levels in order to compete in certain events, AFP reports.

Judges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport had previously ruled that the rules were "discriminatory" but that they were "necessary" to ensure fairness in women's athletics.

South Africa's Semenya last week announced plans to appeal to Switzerland's highest court.

On Monday Swiss Federal Tribunal spokesman Peter Josi told AFP that the Swiss supreme federal court had issued a "super-provisional order," barring the application of the IAAF rules until a further hearing can take place.

AFP says the IAAF said it had "received no information from the Swiss Federal Court so we can not comment at this stage."

The IAAF and Semenya's legal team must now make further submissions to the court.

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