South African runner keeps her title

After months of controversy about her gender, South African runner Caster Semenya will get to keep her gold medal from the 2009 world championships.

"Because Caster has been found to be innocent of any wrong," the South African Sports Ministry said, she will retain her gold medal, retain her title of 800m world champion, and retain her prize money.

The 18-year-old middle distance runner won the gold in the 800 meters at the 2009 world championships with a time of 1:55.45 in the final.

The government agency reported its agreement with the International Association of Athletics Federations that the results of the scientific tests "will be treated as a
confidential matter between patient and doctor. As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. The agency urged "all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things."

The IAAF also issued a statement of regret about the way the incident was handled. "It is deeply regrettable that information of a confidential nature entered the public domain," the IAAF said, but the group insisted that the public information did not originate with them.

The South African Sports Ministry acknowledged that it could not prove the IAAF was responsible for the leak and called for the "chapter of blame apportioning" to be closed.

The next step will involve scientists working to assist sport institutions to regulate gender and fairness issues in competitions, the government said.