South Africa's athletics body has ruled out 800 metres gold medallist Caster Semenya's return to the track before the results of her gender tests are known, reports said Wednesday.
Athletics South Africa's spokesman Richard Stander was responding to a announcement by the 19-year-old runner on Tuesday that she was returning to competition because she saw no reason why she should be barred, DPA reported.
In an interview with Johannesburg's private 702 radio station, Stander said the ASA would wait for the world governing body IAAF to announce its decision on Semenya before allowing her to run.
Stander said the ASA expected that announcement in June.
"So we're waiting for that," he said.
Semenya has not competed since the world championships in Berlin last August, where the IAAF announced it was investigating her gender as she swept past the field to take the 800m gold.
Other athletes had allegedly queried Semenya's deep voice and muscular physique.
The IAAF has held back the results of the tests, which an Australian newspaper reported had shown Semenya to be intersex, or having both male and female characteristics.
In November, the association said Semenya could keep her medal and prize money but it still has not ruled on her eligibility to participate in women's events.
On Tuesday, the athlete broke her silence to announce she was preparing to run again after being barred from an 800m women's race in the Western Cape she wanted to compete in.
"I hereby publicly announce my return to athletics competitions. My coach, agent and I will work closely together to identify and prepare for a limited number of athletics meetings over the course of the coming athletics season," she said in a statement released by her lawyers.
Semenya accused the IAAF of withholding medical information about her condition and said she did not see why she was being banned from running given that the association had cleared her of any wrongdoing.
The IAAF has always said it does not suspect her of cheating but of having an unusual genetic make-up.
Semenya complained that her earning potential was "severely compromised" and that it was "vital" for her to compete in order to prepare for meets in Europe this summer.
Stander, an assistant to ASA acting head Ray Mali, defended the IAAF however, saying: "The IAAF has not been shying away from its responsibilities."