The handling of the Caster Semenya ‘saga' is very quickly disintegrating into a sequel to the ABC's mockumentary "The Games."

Following a refusal by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to release Semenya's gender test results until June this year, Semenya's lawyers have declared her intention to return to competitive athletics and their willingness to fight for her right to do so.

How it is that the IAAF is unable to deal with the matter before June - almost 10 months after the World Athletics Championships - is beyond many people. Leaked results from the gender tests, although not verified, would suggest that the results have been available this whole time.

Semenya has not taken part in an athletics meeting since taking gold at the world titles in Berlin last August (which she's pictured celebrating, above), when a dramatic improvement in times and her muscular build led the IAAF to order the gender test.

Not rushing into a hasty decision is one thing, but leaving Semenya, 19, to stew over her future for almost a year is unacceptable. Had Semenya actually done something wrong and been found guilty of doping, her case would be well and truly resolved by now. But she hasn't done anything wrong. Her lawyers complain of the failure of the IAAF to respect her rights to dignity and privacy. They should also be up in arms about her right to a fair and timely trial.

Her case does raise some very difficult issues. If she does have internal male sex organs which, thanks to the IAAF we have no verification of, she would have a genetic advantage over female competitors who have only female sex organs. Increased musculature and power are a corollary of increased testosterone levels.

In must be acknowledged, however, that testosterone levels even within females with only female sex organs will vary. Genetics are a huge part of sport. Tall and agile women have a natural advantage in a sport like netball. Small and lean women are likely to be better to suited to sports like gymnastics, diving and aerial skiing. Women with higher testosterone levels are likely to be genetically predisposed to power events such as throwing and sprinting. Some would argue that Semenya just won the genetic lottery.

If she does possess internal male sex organs, however, there are some very difficult issues of ‘line drawing' that need to be addressed. The reason we divide sport into male and female categories is because women are predominantly less strong and less powerful than men. Up until Sydney 2000, the International Olympic Committee performed mass "gender-verification" tests, including swabbing to test for sex chromosomes, to uphold this gender divide.

What these tests revealed, ironically, was not that there were men masquerading as women, but that nature throws up many and varied chromosomal make-ups. In a 2002 paper on medico-legal issues in sport, Hayden Opie notes that seven female competitors in Atlanta were found during the testing procedure to have a disorder known as androgen insensitivity syndrome. These competitors were allowed to compete, since despite possessing "intra-abdominal atrophic testes," testosterone levels, muscularity, external genitalia and physical form were all within ordinary female ranges.

The line that was drawn in this instance, between permissible "male" qualities and impermissible "male" qualities, was in keeping with the reason we have the gender divide in sport in the first place- to ensure female competitors are not overpowered by their more powerful male counterparts. Indeed, if we did not have the gender divide, female participation in sport would be obliterated. As an example, our top international female rowers record the same time on a rowing ergometer test as a year ten schoolboy. There would be no female elite sportspeople, and even at a participation level, female involvement would likely to be decimated by an unequal playing field.

It is true, however, that genetically powerful women make competitions against less genetically powerful women also an unequal playing field. Any disqualification of Semenya is therefore on the basis that it is her "male qualities," rather than other genetic power qualities, that give her an advantage.

Similar, but not identical, issues arise in relation to men who have undergone gender re-alignment surgery to make them women. Richard Raskin was a good male tennis player who underwent such a procedure and won his court case to allow him the right, post-op, to compete as Renee Richards in the US Tennis Open. It was argued at the time that her prior life as a male, and thus prior influence of testosterone on her physical development, gave her an unfair advantage over her female competitors. Richards' human right to freedom from discrimination prevailed in that instance.

Semenya too has a right to be free from discrimination, and to have her dignity and privacy respected. These rights are all enshrined not only in the South African Bill of Rights, but also various international treaties. Yet the exemption for discrimination on the basis of gender in sport is one that has positive benefits for women's self-determination and sporting involvement world-wide.

Semenya may not fit neatly into the male/female divide, and seeing as approximately 3% of our population is believed to be born transgender, she is certainly not alone in inhabiting the "grey" area. A hard decision does need to be made, and unfortunately for Semenya, I believe this decision must be premised on the reason we discriminate between males and females in sport in the first place- to level up the unfair role of testosterone in sporting performance.

But hard decision or not, it is only fair that Semenya is not left waiting. She deserves a decision.