DSD athlete Beatrice Masilingi finishes first in 100m semi-final at World U20 Championships

Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi who is unable to compete at certain events as she has differences in sexual development (DSD) finished first in her 100m semi-final at the World under-20s championships on Wednesday. Masilingi, 18, is blocked from running distances between 400m and one mile as under World Athletics she has a rare physiology giving her an unfair competitive advantage. Earlier she claimed a personal best of 11.20sec in the heats in Kenya.

Namibia's @BeaMasilingi tops the 100m heats with a national U20 record 11.20 👏🇳🇦

The other leading qualifiers for tonight's #WorldAthleticsU20 semi-finals are:
Tina Clayton 🇯🇲11.50
Camille Rutherford 🇧🇸 11.59
Tima Seikeseye Godbless🇳🇬 11.59
Praise Ofoku 🇳🇬 11.65 pic.twitter.com/JOk2GQJmeB

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 18, 2021

Masilingi was the second quickest qualifier for Friday’s final running 11.35 seconds, 0.01sec behind Jamaican Tina Clayton from another of the three semi-finals. Fellow Namibian teenager Christine Mboma won silver at the 200m in the Tokyo Olympics earlier this month is set to race in Friday’s heats over the same distance and is also deemed to have DSD. Masilingi finished sixth in the race on 3 August in Japan in her first major championships. It is the same issue that led to South Africa’s two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya, who is also classified as a DSD athlete, being unable to defend her middle-distance crown in Tokyo.