Portugal Colonial - Semenya set to end 5-year world championship absence in Eugene

Semenya initially missed qualification when she only finished sixth at the African Championships last month but has benefitted from a number of athletes dropping out.

The World Championships run from July 15-24 in Eugene, Oregon.

The 31-year-old last competed at a world championships in London in 2017 where she won her third 800m world crown.

A year later she won double gold in the 800m and 1500m at the Commonwealth Games which is the last time she represented South Africa in a global international competition.

Semenya was forced to switch from her favoured distance to the longer event due to gender eligibility rules that required her to take testosterone-reducing drugs to compete in races between 400m to a mile.

World Athletics bar women athletes with high testosterone levels from competing in shorter races because the governing body says the hormone increases muscle mass and oxygen uptake.

Semenya, who became a world champion at 18 years of age in Berlin in 2009, has made several unsuccessful legal attempts to overturn the ruling.

In a bid to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, she even dropped down to the 200m, but was unsuccessful in her attempts to qualify.

P.L.Madureira--PC