TRACK champion Caster Semenya will remain a woman, regardless of her level of testosterone, top sports scientist Professor Timothy Noakes said at the University of Cape Town.

TRACK champion Caster Semenya will remain a woman, regardless of her level of testosterone, top sports scientist Professor Timothy Noakes said at the University of Cape Town.

Noakes said: "Gender is not decided only on the amount of testosterone in your blood. I checked on this and found out that women produce about one-seventh the amount of testosterone each day than do men.

"In fact, if they want to test Semenya they would have to test all other female sprinters."

This comes after the British newspaper The Telegraph reported yesterday that previous "tests" carried out on Semenya indicated that she had "three times" the normal female level of testosterone in her body.

The tests were still to be officially announced, The Telegraph said.

"I would guess the best female sprinters probably have more testosterone than the average female - but they also have muscles that can respond to that testosterone," Noakes said.

To be classified a man according to testosterone production alone, Caster would have to be producing "seven times" as much testosterone a day - compared to any other woman, Noakes said.

He said the more testosterone a woman had, however, the "bigger the advantage" she would have in track and field events.