The 18-year-old sport science student at Pretoria University, who clocked 1:55.45 on the 800-metre track last Wednesday, has been asked to take a "gender verification test" which has been banned as ‘racist’ by Leonard Chuene, the head of South African athletics who has since stepped down from the IAAF.

Mr Chuene said: “Who are white people to question the makeup of an African girl? I say this is racism, pure and simple. In Africa, as in any other country, parents look at new babies and can see straightaway whether to raise them as a boy or a girl. We are now being told that it is not so simple. But the people who question these things have no idea how much shame such a slur can bring on a family.”

Mr Chuene added: "They are doubting the parents of this child and questioning the way they brought her up. God has his say on what people are. He made us all. A young girl has no input as she enters the world on what she will look like. It is outrageous.”

The African National Congress have pledged their support for the gold medal winner. South African President, Jacob Zuma, has said that Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile has written to the IAAF in condemnation. Other political leaders have called this the mark of “Western Imperialists” similar to the case of Saartjie Baartman, the KhoiKhoi woman who was paraded around Western Europe in the 18th Century for her steatopygia.

Butana Komphela, chairperson of a parliamentary sports committee, said: “Just because she is black and she surpassed her European competitors, there is all this uproar."

Semenya is currently holding the women’s 800-metre championship record, beating previous South African record holders, Zelda Pretorius and Zola Budd. The ANC Women's League said on Friday that subjecting Semenya to a gender test "suggests that women can only perform to a certain level and that those who exceed this level should be men".

On Sunday, IAAF president Lamine Diack commented on the leaked report which has thrown Semenya’s gender test into the public domain: "It should not even have become an issue if the confidentiality had been respected," he said. "There was a leak of confidentiality at some point and this led to some insensitive reactions."

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