**New 800m world champion Caster Semenya almost snubbed her gold medal ceremony after being told to take a gender test, a South African sports official says.**Athletics South Africa President Leonard Chuene told a local paper that he had to “persuade” the athlete to go to the podium to accept her award.
Mr Chuene says the 18 year old was unhappy about the gender row and asked him why she had been taken to Berlin.
Ms Semenya’s birth certificate, stating she is female, has also been published.
“Why did you bring me here You should have left me in my village at home”
Caster Semenya
‘We know Semenya is a girl’](http://www.paklinks.com/2/low/africa/8213581.stm)
“She said she did not want to go on the podium, but I told her she must,” Mr Chuene told South Africa’s Times newspaper.
“She is not rejoicing. She [didn’t] want the medal,” he said.
“She told me: 'No-one ever said I was not a girl but here [at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin] I am not. I am not a boy,”
“Why did you bring me here You should have left me in my village at home,” Ms Semenya reportedly asked Mr Chuene.
Her mother Dorcus Semenya has told the BBC that the athlete is certainly female.
“I have no doubt about what I see. It’s a girl,” she said.
The Sowetan newspaper published her birth certificate, which confirms her gender as female.
Mr Chuene on Thursday expressed outrage at the order that Ms Semenya undergo a gender verification test.
He said she had been “humiliated” and treated like a “leper”.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, along with numerous officials and other bodies, have also backed Ms Semenya, saying she has been unfairly treated.
The International Association of Athletics Federation ordered Ms Semenya to take the test after she made remarkable improvements in her performances in recent months.