LONDON, England (CNN) -- The London 2012 Olympics chief and the African National Congress arecriticizing athletics officials over their handling of South African runner Caster Semenya, whose female gender was publicly questioned last month.

Sebastian Coe, a former Olympic runner who now oversees London's Olympic committee, said international athletics officials should have acted more quickly once the questions arose so as to protect Semenya from harmful speculation.

"This is not easy," Coe told reporters Thursday. "The science of this is complicated. And when you are dealing with a gender issue like this, it's sensitive, it's complicated, it is something that also polarizes people, and it's a debate that, frankly, far too long has been in the corner of conferences and something that governing bodies have not wanted to grasp."

Coe said that whenever there is a question about an athlete's gender, "we must at all times be able to act quickly for one primary purpose, and that is to protect the athlete."

Critics have said the time that has elapsed between the gender tests and the still-awaited official release of the results is harming Semenya, especially because the case has been played out so publicly around the world.

Separately, the African National Congress called Thursday for the results of Semenya's gender tests to be declared null and void.

The controversy over Semenya erupted after she crushed her rivals in the 800 meters race at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany, in August. Her time of one minute, 55.45 seconds is the best women's time in the world this year.

Semenya's masculine build and dominant performance fueled existing questions about her gender, and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) -- which governs the sport worldwide -- ordered tests on her.

Reports in two newspapers last month said the results of the tests showed Semenya has both male and female characteristics. The IAAF has declined to confirm those reports and said a decision in the case will come late next month.

Though Semenya's family, supporters and countrymen have rallied behind her and denounced the tests, the simmering speculation has, some say, permanently stained Semenya's promising career. Others worry about the damage it may have already caused to a girl who is still only a teenager; Semenya turns 19 in January.

The African National Congress said the national governing body, Athletics South Africa, could have handled the matter better.

"ASA should have protected Caster before they left for Berlin and in Berlin," the ANC said. "It is not our view that they did so."

The ANC did not explain why it wants the gender test results thrown out, other than for alleged mishandling of the case.

The process of gender verification has undergone big changes since it was first introduced for international competition in the 1960s, the IAAF said.

The first mechanism involved "rather crude and perhaps humiliating physical examinations," which soon gave way to mouth swabs to collect chromosomes.

There were too many uncertainties with mouth swabs, so the IAAF abandoned them in 1991 and the International Olympic Committee discontinued them in 2000.

A proper test has yet to be found, the IAAF said, but the current tests are considered a good interim solution.

The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta
TM & © 2009 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.