I am writing this article in my capacity as a self appointed chairman of Semanya Fan Club. In case you may not be aware, Caster Semanya is an 18 year- old South African girl who won the 800 metres gold in the recent World championships in Berlin and soon hit the international headlines.

There had been a lot of brouhaha after her record run of I min 55.45 secs following an order by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for the lady to undergo tests because of doubts about her gender. The time she set was significantly faster than the other competitors in the women’s race.

Indeed, certain South African athletics officials were so furious about the whole incident that they even threatened a “third world war” if the young lady was deprived of her gold medal. In fact, a lot of people including me did not see all the fuss about the gender test because from a layman’s point of view, it should be easy to determine the sex of new born baby even at a glance. May be I would have to revise my notes because the medical people are saying that the issue is not that simple and that we could be wrong to conclude that a person who had a vagina was certainly a woman.

An article in Ghana’s famous weekly newspaper The Mirror of Oct 3 2009 by Dr Clayton Clay, quoted an expert of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists saying on BBC that there are broadly three types of sex.

There is psychological sex, which is what you feel like and this is related to how you have been brought up; gonadal sex which is whether you have ovaries or testicles and chromosomal sex which is based on what combination of x or y chromosome you have.

This means when a person is diagnosed with a condition known as “intersex’ then this diagnosis is not just based on the anatomy but on genetic, hormonal and other factors. What a complex world!

It is reported that Caster Semanya’s testosterone levels are three times higher than what is normally expected in a female. It is a very delicate issue, that’s why medical experts advise that such intersex conditions should be handled sensitively and I would add discreetly. Caster is not that lucky. She is now a top international star and it is not that easy to hide her identity.

We of the Caster Semanya Fan Club believe that the harm has already been done. Her face is all over the place on the internet but since the experts say there could be a treatment for her to become a full woman, she should be well counseled to undertake any treatment that would make her return to the tracks.

The executive of her Fan Club will make an international bid for a prospective husband for the young lady when she decides to get married. Luckily, the medical experts have not said her high testosterone levels cannot make her infertile to give birth and so there should be no cause for alarm.

The snag is experts have determined that in sports you have an unfair advantage over your competitors if you look like a woman and yet are found to have higher than normal levels of the female hormone testosterone which is known to increase muscle strength. But as some one put it, if you want fair play you cannot hold Caster personally responsible for what she is.