Namibia’s Christine Mboma set a new junior world record on Thursday night when she won the women’s 200m final at Wanda Diamond League held at the Weltklasse meeting.
The Namibian athlete clocked 21.78 seconds to beat a strong field that included Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith to claim the world Under-20 record .
Jackson was relegated to second place, with a personal-best time of 21.81 seconds followed by Asher-Smith in third place after clocking 22.19.
Mboma and fellow Namibian athlete Beatrice Masilingi were barred from competing in their favoured 400m category after World Athletics invoked the so-called “Caster Semenya” regulations to disqualify them due to their testosterone levels.
The regulations, known as the Difference of Sex Development rules, barred the female athletes – including South African star Semenya — who have what the athletics body called “high levels of endogenous testosterone” from competing on the international stage unless they maintained low blood testosterone levels.
Blood serum tests conducted in June confirmed that both Mboma and Masilingi had levels of endogenous testosterone above the World Athletics-mandated limit of 5 nanomoles of serum testosterone per litre.
They were forced to stop competing in 400m races and have since been running in 200m dashes.
JN/APA