Gender runner too upset to sit exams

South Africa's 800m champion Caster Semenya is too traumatised to write her university exams after a public storm over her gender testing, media reported yesterday.

The 18-year-old's coach told the Afrikaans daily Beeld that Semenya - whose sex probe was announced shortly after her World Championships win in August - is only realising what had happened to her and that it is beginning to affect her.

"She is mentally tired," Michael Seme said.

"Fortunately the University of Pretoria understands her problems. They have made it clear to her that exams are the last thing she needs to worry about right now.

"It is important for everybody that Caster has to work through this on her own, but we are there if she needs us. She will write her exams when she is ready."

The first year sports science student was given a heroine's return by outraged South Africans in August after the announcement of the probe by the IAAF in Berlin.

Leaked test results later said Semenya was a hermaphrodite, sparking further anger from the South African public and government.