In a shocking turn of events for Indian athletics, women's heptathlete Swapna Barman made an extraordinary claim against team-mate Nandini Agasara, who won the women's heptathlon bronze medal on Sunday.
Without naming anyone, in a now deleted tweet, Swapna, gold medallist at the 2018 Asian Games who finished in 4th place in the heptathlon event on Sunday, alleged Nandini is transgender.
'I have lost my Asian Games bronze medal to a transgender women at the 19th Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. I want my medal back as it is against the rules of our Athletics. Help me and support me please.
#protestforfairplay,' Swapna tweeted.
In the women's heptathlon, Nandini took the bronze ahead of Swapna after winning the 800 metres race, the last of the gruelling seven-event competition.
Nandini collected an aggregate of 5712 points while Swapna, who finished third in 800m, secured 5708.
In March, World Athletic banned transgender women from competing in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty.
It also voted to tighten restrictions on athletes with Differences in Sex Development (DSD), cutting the maximum amount of plasma testosterone for athletes in half, to 2.5 nanomoles per litre from five.
The post took social media by storm with some rightly saying, 'Indian Athletics does not need this'.
