Semenya mulled rejecting medal, athletics officials say

South African 800-metre world champion Caster Semenya nearly boycotted the awards ceremony after feeling devastated by the row over her gender, her family and athletics officials said.

"She said she did not want to go on the podium, but I told her she must," Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene told reporters.

"She is not rejoicing. She (didn't) want the medal," said Chuene, who presented Semenya with the gold medal on Thursday.

"She told me: 'No one ever said I was not a girl, but here (in Berlin) I am not. I am not a boy. Why did you bring me here? You should have left me in my village at home'."

Semenya's family said they were angered at the IAAF decision to conduct gender tests on their 18-year-old daughter.

"We won't accept her having to undergo those tests, and we agree with her - she should (have) rather rejected the medal. We won't allow our daughter to be disgraced," her father Jacob said.

"I feel so proud of my daughter. The talk that they want to examine her, it won't happen while I'm alive," her mother Dorcus said.

The popular Sowetan tabloid published a copy of Semenya's birth certificate, listing her sex as female, on its front page under the headline "She's a girl" with a picture of a young Semenya towering over a group of school friends.

Positive test

Nigeria's Amaka Ogoegbunam, who competed in the women's 400 metres hurdles and was due to run in the 4x400 relay, has tested positive for the steroid metenolone. The 19-year-old tested positive in an in-competition test on August 18, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told reporters, adding the athlete had been provisionally suspended.