By Duncan Mackay

 

October 25 - Lamine Diack (pictured), President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), must apologise to world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya before the South African Government will open talks, a senior official warned today.

 

Butana Komphela, the South African Sports and Recreation Portfolio Committee chairman, claimed Diack would have to say sorry "to Caster Semenya, her family and the people of South Africa" before any discussions on the issue could take place.

 

Diack was due to visit Johannesburg last week to hold talks over the row which has split South Africa along racial lines but cancelled at the last moment.

 

The IAAF claimed Diack postponed the trip after receiving an invitation from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev but it also coincided with calls from the ruling  African National Congress for the gender tests on Semenya to be quashed.

 

Komphela said: "I haven't seen or heard anything about a cancellation [of their visit to South Africa].

 

"But what I know is that we have sent a letter to the IAAF expressing our dissatisfaction with the harm they have caused this girl.

 

"She has been though a lot of hell and we will not allow anyone to bedevil her any further."

 

Nick Davies, a spokesman for the IAAF, said that it was important consensus to be reached over the results of the sex tests conducted on Semenya, which have been analysed by eight medical experts - four from inside the IAAF Medical Commission and four from outside.

 

He said: "The President would like to find a solution to this matter which puts the interests of the athlete first."

 

The results conducted by the IAAF needed to be considered along with the results of the controversial tests conducted on Semenya by Athletics South Africa in Pretoria on August 7, Davies said.

 

He said: "This is why the President is ready to talk to [the South African] Sports Minister to hopefully get him to agree that this is a reasonable way to proceed.

 

"Once that is done, we hope to be able to discuss the results and any necessary consequences directly with Semenya."

 

 

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