Namibia’s Christine Mboma withdraws from Olympics after running seventh fastest 400m
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Christine Mboma of Namibia reacts after setting a new World under-20 record in a women's 400m race at the Irena Szewinska Memorial athletics meeting in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Photo: Tytus Zmijewski/EPA
JOHANNESBURG - Namibia’s women’s athlete Christine Mboma on Thursday withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics 400m event, a day after running the seventh fastest time in the history of the event.
Mboma’s name was missing on the entry list for the 400m at the Tokyo Olympics, prompting speculation that she has elevated levels of testosterone that prohibit women athletes competing in events from 400m to one mile.
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They are the same rules, targeting women athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), which prevent SA’s Caster Semenya from going for her third Olympic gold in a row in the 800m.
Mboma, 18, ran 48.54 at the Irena Szewińska Memorial meeting in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz on Wednesday. Her time is a new Under-20 world record as well as being one of the top-10 fastest-ever recorded times in the women’s 400m.
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Mboma’s compatriot Beatrice Masilingi, has also withdrawn from the women’s 400m. Masilingi has a Personal Best (PB) time of 49.53 which she ran in Lusaka on April 11 - a day after turning 18.
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Both athletes, however, are still down to compete in the women’s 200m which strengthens the case that the pair have been banned from the 400m.
World Athletics passed the DSD ruling in 2018, and since then Semenya has not competed in the women’s 800m. Instead, she attempted to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 5000m, but did not run the qualifying time of sub-15:10 - despite notching up a PB in the event this year which was 22 seconds too slow.
African News Agency