WORLD champion 800 metre runner Caster Semenya has been revealed to have both male and female sexual organs, posing an ethical and political quandary for the world international athletics body, the IAAF, and South Africa.

Extensive physical and emotional examinations of Semenya, 18, have shown the athlete is technically a hermaphrodite.

Caster Semenya at the world titles last month and (inset) with a magazine makeover this week.

Medical reports indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal testes, producing amounts of testosterone considered abnormal for a woman.

Late last night the IAAF was trying to contact Semenya to inform her of the medical results following exhaustive examinations involving blood tests, chromosome tests and a gynaecological exam she underwent after dominating the world titles in Berlin last month.