By unanimously backing their president Leonard Chuene, the ASA have effectively endorsed a liar, writes an irate Rob Peters.

Hardly a surprising move is it? Sports bodies in South Africa seldom take the path of the virtuous. Athletics South Africa (ASA) is no different. And their unanimous endorsement of Leonard Chuene as their president simply serves notice that honesty is not a pre-requisite for the top job.

Last weekend, Chuene admitted to lying about knowing about invasive gender tests conducted on Caster Semenya ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last month. But the ASA came out in support of our boy, claiming it is unfair to judge him solely on his handling of the Semenya saga.

That, of course, is absolute rubbish, but even more laughable is that judging Chuene on results would (or at least should) see him get the chop anyway. Consider the past two major events that South African athletes have been involved in ? the Beijing Olympics last year, and the IAAF World Champs in Berlin.

The combined medal haul from both those events is four ? silver for long jumper Khotso Mokoena at both events, and gold for Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Caster Semenya in the men's and women's 800 metres respectively at the World Champs. The latter, of course, has now been clouded by controversy, thanks largely to the antics of Chuene.

Granted, South Africa is not expected to clean up at these events, but hell, if you're not going to judge Chuene on his ability to conduct himself in the manner expected of a president of a national body, then surely results factor into it? If not, what exactly is he being judged on?

The lies are bad enough, but what really makes my blood boil are the accusations that were hurled about when the IAAF initially called for Semenya to be tested. Racism, imperialism, European arrogance, Australia out to get us, and more was thrown around. This all as Chuene denied any knowledge of previous tests and slammed it all as vicious rumour.

Sure, the IAAF have not exactly covered themselves in glory, but all the while the ASA president knew he was lying. So not only did he try and con the nation, he compounded it further by turning it into a slanging match.

"This is about racism," Chuene said earlier this month.

"These rumours come from South Africa. Why did these people write to the IAAF?

"These are the same people who don?t want 2010 [next year's Fifa World Cup], the same people who bring black people down and the same people who refuse to believe that Africans can make it on the world stage."

And this is the person the ASA have put their faith in to lead them forward? Even by South African sporting standards that is pretty remarkable.