MIGHT hormone therapy have ended the reign of Caster Semenya?

That question was the elephant in the athletes’ report room at the Samsung Diamond League in Paris last night.

Rivals warily eyed the South African world 800 metres champion, whose 2009 victory in Berlin was clouded by controversy over her gender. Out on the track in the Stade de France, Semenya answered by comfortably beating the best 800m field assembled this year.

This victory was her most significant performance since she was allowed to return to competition 12 months ago, yet her time in coolish and fairly windy conditions was modest to say the least. The South African won in 2min 00.18sec, from Morocco’s Halima Hachlaf (2:00.60). There was a familiar finish from Jenny Meadows, whose third place was the same as when she took bronze for Britain behind Semenya in that final two years ago, but her time of 2:00.74 here told as little about Meadows’ future as Semenya’s victory did about hers.

Semenya has yet to get within three seconds of the time that won in Berlin, and she is only sixth fastest in the world this year. The world athletics body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, will not comment on her condition or the examinations to which she was subjected before she was cleared to compete. However, there is compelling suspicion that the process included hormone replacement therapy, which may mean Semenya never runs as fast as her world title-winning 1:55.45 again.

Yet the Paris field included the three fastest women in the world this year: respectively Svetlana Usovich, Hachlaf, and Kenia Sinclair. Seven of last night’s field had previously run faster this year than Meadows, so the English woman could take encouragement from the result.

The inevitable questions remain, however. On the eve of the meeting, Semenya attended a press conference where the media had been warned that she would not answer any questions “relating to what happened in 2009”.

What intrigues people now is what has happened since she took that title.

Last night she was nearly five seconds slower. The IAAF sanctioned her return to competition last July, and her best time since is a modest 1:58.16, last year. In two previous Diamond League 800m races this year she had finished second and third, and when she attempted a 1500m race in Lausanne last week, she was 13th and last. She attempted another 800m on Tuesday in Rheims and finished fifth in 2:01.02.

These slower times suggest that any advantage she may once have enjoyed has now been blunted by therapy which could include the female hormone oestrogen. The consequences of that could include changes in muscle strength, redistribution of muscle mass and body fat, and the ability to recover. The IAAF are sensitive about protecting Semenya, but also have to protect other competitors around whom there are no questions of gender ambiguity. They introduced a new system in May, effectively laying down a threshold. They set a maximum level for the male hormone, testosterone, at 10 nanomoles per litre. The average man has more than 10, and the average woman has 2.5.

Semenya’s testosterone levels are now known to be less than 10, so there’s an end to argument. And Semenya maintains she can retain her world gold in Daegu next month.

The risk now is that competitors check their testosterone level, and then boost it artificially close to 10, as is done with haematocrit by cyclists. This would call for more sophisticated test procedures which identify naturally-produced testosterone from that introduced artificially.

Such is the expectation on world record-holder Usain Bolt that the Jamaican’s 200m victory in Paris, with 20.03 into a 0.6 wind was merely average.

Perri Shakes-Drayton demonstrated how much Scotland’s Eilidh Child must find to regain her UK No.1 status when she finished fourth in the 400m hurdles with 54.79, more than a second ahead of the Commonwealth silver medalist.

There was no men’s triple jump last night, but there is when the Diamond League comes to Birmingham’s Alexandra Stadium tomorrow, a 12,700 sell-out. Frenchman Teddy Tamgho, just two centimetres short of the 18-metres barrier, gets the chance to lay down a marker against Britain’s world champion Phillips Idowu.

n Kimberly Reed, from Edinburgh, produced the second best throw of her career, 54.62 metres, to reach today’s hammer final at the World Youth Championships in Lille. The British and Scottish under-17 record-holder, who is coached by former Met Police inspector Alan Bertram, is sixth best qualifier for the final.

diamond league The world champion beats a stellar field, but a slow start to her comeback raises issue of hormone therapy, writes Doug Gillon