Semenya returns to Berlin a year after the world championships

By Sebastian Stiekel Aug 19, 2010, 12:30 GMT

Berlin - If there is a place that has shaped Caster Semenya's sporting career, it is undoubtedly Berlin.

Exactly a year ago the South African won the world championship gold medal in the women's 800m in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. But it is also there that one of the most spectacular controversies in the history of athletics started.

First people started to question her gender, then she had to undergo several tests and then she had to sit out 11 months while the test results where analysed.

On Sunday the 19-year-old returns to the Olympic Stadium to compete in her third competition since receiving the all-clear.

Semenya said that she was not concerned about her return at the ISTAF. 'I am already looking forward to the wonderful stadium and the Berlin fans.'

This quote from a press release sent out by the organizers, is one of the few statements that she has made. Until a press conference she will attend on Friday, she is being shielded from the press frenzy.

Even though she looks back at a difficult and at times degrading year, she says that she harbours no ill-feeling. 'I have forgotten this whole thing a long time ago.'

She has also decided against suing athletics controlling body IAAF for damages and views her two starts in Finland in Lappeenranta and Lapinlahti and also Sunday's meet in Berlin as a new start.

'I now have to see that I can run a good race to go back to where I was.'

Many observers question whether she will ever achieve that. A year ago she ran the 800m in 1:55.49 minutes, during the two races in Finland she needed over two minutes.

The lengthy delay between the tests and the all-clear from the IAAF had given rise to speculation and doubts: What did the tests really reveal, how was Semenya treated.

Nobody is saying anything about that.

Her coach Michael Seme is instead trying to bring her back to normality, to let her race and to keep the expectations in check.

He said that she is still far away from the form that made her world champions.

Nevertheless, her background have made her into the main attraction on the weekend. At her come-back race in Lappeenranta there were more journalists at the meet than ever before.

And in Berlin more fans will turn up to see specifically her, even thought there are other stars, like Australian pole vault Olympic champion Steve Hooker competing.

Semenya's season highlight are to be the Commonwealth Games in India in October. But they are unlikely to reach the emotional levels that running in Berlin will have.

To be cheered by fans in Berlin instead of being questioned will provide a fitting ending to her relationship with the German capital.