Sprinter Dutee Chand believes track and field’s new rules on women’s testosterone levels are “wrong” and has offered legal help to Olympic champion Caster Semenya to help her fight back.
Chand, who won a court battle for her right to compete with a hormonal imbalance, said she was relieved to have avoided falling under the regulations, which only cover distances between 400m and one mile. But she criticised this week's International Association of Athletics Federations ruling, which has been interpreted as targeting Semenya, a middle-distance specialist.
“I am happy and relieved after four years of uncertainty but I feel for athletes like Semenya. I strongly believe the current rules are also wrong,” Chand told AFP. “I have offered Semenya my legal team if she needs. I have emailed her offering my support and help.”
South Africa's Semenya has long attracted debate because of her powerful physique related to hyperandrogenism, the medical condition which causes women to produce high levels of male sex hormones.
The new IAAF ruling covers events from 400m to the mile because the IAAF's medical and science department says it has data showing an advantage for hyper-androgenous athletes over such distances. But South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has blasted the new regulations as unjust and racist and urged the Pretoria government to challenge them in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).