India’s Dutee Chand scooped her second silver of the Asian Games Wednesday, four years after she was dropped from the team due to her high testosterone levels – but said she lives in fear she could be made to “suffer” again.
Chand has hyperandrogenism, the condition that also affects South African middle distance star and Olympic champion Caster Semenya.
The Indian athlete won a court battle for her right to compete with her hormonal imbalance, and has achieved silvers in Jakarta in both the 100m and 200m – only the second Indian woman ever to do so, after sprint queen PT Usha.
“God has given me a lot of trouble since 2014. I suffered a lot. Nobody could have suffered so much,” said Chand.
“But I came back to give two medals to India. It will be a big celebration back home.”
Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong took the gold with 22.96, ahead of Chand who had led until late but finished on 23.20.
Chand was dropped from the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in 2014 after hormone testing.
Hyperandrogenism, the medical condition which causes women to produce high levels of male sex hormones, is controversial because it pits principles of fair competition against the rights of women born with the condition.
New rules say women racing between 400m and one mile can only compete if they take medication to reduce their testosterone levels – but short-distance sprinters like Chand were spared.
“My legal team helped me to come back,” said Chand. “But nobody could guarantee what will happen in the future. Caster Semenya is still fighting.
“There is always fear but you need to overcome it.”
In the men’s 200m Japan’s Yuki Koike won a dramatic race in a photo-finish with Taiwan’s Yang Chunhan.
The young Japanese athlete, expected to be in the shadow of Rio silver relay medalist and compatriot Shota Iizuka, finished strongly and took the gold with a well-timed lean, as Yang stumbled in his attempt to cling to his lead.
Both recorded times of 20.23 while Iizuka finished sixth.
“Iizuka has so much experience of competing at 200 metres and has had so many great results,” said Koike, 23. “I just want to achieve what he has done.”
Earlier, China carried forward its Rio 2016 success to win both golds in the 20km walks.
Wang Kaihau won a tight men’s race, finally pulling ahead of Japan’s Toshikazulate Yamanishi late on to win by six seconds.
In the women’s event, China’s Yang Jiayu and Qieyang Shijie stormed nearly five minutes clear of the pack for gold and silver at a joint Games record of 1:29:15 – China’s fifth consecutive win in the event.
India had three competitors across the two finals disqualified for illegally losing contact with the floor.
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