Caster Semenya will keep the gold medal she won at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the South African Government has said.

Hours before her stunning 800metres triumph in Berlin in August, it emerged that she had been told by the IAAF to take a gender test as a result of her rapid rise to prominence this season.

The 18-year-old is still waiting for the results of the investigation but South Africa's Department of Sport and Recreation said today the IAAF had agreed she would not be stripped of her title.

A statement read: “Because Caster has been found to be innocent of any wrong doing, she will retain her gold medal, retain her title of 800m world champion, retain her prize money.”

The Ministry added that this was agreed upon during deliberations between the government, the IAAF and Semenya's lawyer.

The IAAF said they could not confirm the details in the statement but said they had accepted the resignation of Athletics South Africa President Leonard Chuene from the IAAF Council and had opened a formal investigation into the handling of Semenya by the ASA.

When the news of the affair initially broke Chuene immediately attacked the IAAF, accusing the organisation of racism and denying there was any doubt about the nature of Semenya's physicality.

However, he subsequently admitted that the ASA had conducted gender tests on Semenya before the World Championships — the nature of which were hidden from the athlete — and that he had overruled a suggestion from the South African team's doctor that Semenya be withdrawn from the Berlin competition.

It was originally thought the results of the tests carried out by the IAAF would be made public at the world governing body's two-day meeting, which starts tomorrow.

However, officials said last night the results are still being analysed and could not say when they would be published.