Semenya tanked on purpose

ventolin^3

You are not getting the point, they are trying to say that EVEN THOUGH Komen's last lap was slower, If you were only looking at his form/facial expressions you WOULD NOT be able to tell.

EVERYBODY so far agrees that had the pacing been even he could have gone faster. BUT that is not the point we are discussing, we are attempting to show that you can not tell if an athlete is going there hardest via facial expressions.

no

you look at his stride, not his face - legs are doing the running not his smirk

his stride looked noticeably shorter in stretch-drive than on previous laps

Maybe after the first couple of races they (she and coach) don't think she is fit enough to just run away from a top-class field (all under 2.00). Perhaps she is trying to learn to race a little more tactically to compensate. Given her inexperience she has a large learning curve to go through, and things she got away with before she might not be able to replicate right now - see Jelimo from the past 2 seasons!!

Lot's of people run from lane two - like Wheating does all the time - especially in crowded quality fields, when they don't go that fast as well (barely under 2.00).

Might there be another agenda here? possibly, but who cares, it's not a friggin conspiracy, as so many idiots seem to imply!

Well... lets look at the most recent race. 2:07?! If you're gonna tank on purpose and/or run a poor tactical race, you think you'd tank less (maybe take 2nd) or use better tactics the following week.

She just sucked. Maybe she did have to take hormone treatment, and as previous posters have said, they just haven'[t worked to their full effect? So, she's struggling. I dount it given her season PB the week prior.

Personally, I think this is a huge show to give her the ability to say look I don't always win and I have bad races" when she blows out the rest of (more important) races this season.

I still don't think the individual should be on the field. It's not a RIGHT to compete.

Fortunately it's not your decision, nor does your opinion on what is a "right" or not really matter.

Your right. I'm not running against her... in reality, it really doesn't impact me at all. Trouble is, I feel for the women who are.

Where's wikileaks when we need it? Share the test results, let us know what suddenly made it right for her to be on the feild. If it wasn't ok for 11 months, something has changed. What?

Not sure why I read through this whole thread, but I'll leave you my takeaways:

1. This Semenya thing is strange, no 1:56 runner has a 2:07 bad day, especially when receiving appearance fees.

2. Ventolin - the guy is a dick

That is all.

Hi Ross,

Thanks again for your insights. You are right, it is a complicated issue. I am not sure what the answer is. I think the problem right now is that the other athletes and the public have no confidence that the process is fair. I think it would not be necessary for Semenya's personal results to be released (indeed, against her privacy) but I do think it would all play out much better if both the PROCESS for determining sex and a clear STANDARD of measurement was put forth that everybody could see. Even the process at this point is so nebulous it looks to an outsider that the IAAF just caved to political pressure and surely that was at least one factor.

I don't have either the knowledge or wisdom to know what that process is. One thing I have not seen (perhaps you have addressed it in your blog) is how AIS is measured. Can it be measured whether a person is completely AIS or partially AIS or is this a clinical determination? I am not even sure what you would be measuring? some sort of testosterone or protein binding?

I saw semenya's last two races and when he finished third he looked like he could have run much, much faster. In the last race he won, he looked like he could run much, much faster. Let's face it this cat can run likely a 1:52 and he's out there messing around trying to justify his presence in a woman's event.