Stressed Caster Semenya misses university exams

South African athlete Caster Semenya, subject of a row over her gender, is too stressed to sit her university exams, according to reports. The 18-year-old underwent laboratory tests to determine her true gender after she won the women’s 800m at the World Championships this August - but she is still waiting to hear the results.

Semenya's spectacular triumph and subsequent problems provoked great public interest and media speculation. It was reported that the tests by the International Association of Athletics Federations had found she had both male and female sexual organs. The IAAF refused to comment on the rumours, but the organisation's prolonged silence on the matter has only fuelled speculation.

Now her coach has revealed Semenya is too traumatised to take her university exams in sports science, the degree she is studying at Pretoria University.

"Her head is very tired," said Michael Seme. "Fortunately, the university understands her problems and made it clear to her that exams are the last thing she needs to worry about."

Semenya (pictured above with Athletics SA president Leonard Chuene), who has enjoyed an outpouring of sympathy in her native South Africa, will now be allowed to complete her exams whenever she is ready. But with the IAAF refusing to reveal the results of her gender test – or make a decision on whether to strip the athlete of her World Championship gold medal - until November, it is difficult to see her personal trauma ending any time soon.