Paris Olympics: Was Abha Khatua prevented from making the cut due to hormonal imbalance?

BENGALURU: Was Abha Khatua, the national record holder in women’s shotput, prevented from qualifying for the Paris Olympics because she did not meet the World Athletics Federation’s requirements for differences in gender development (DSD)?

Khatua’s name not being included in the Olympic entry list has been a hot topic in the country’s track and field circles for the past few days. After the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) confirmed on Wednesday that the 29-year-old Khatua had failed to make it to the final stage, sources told TOI that World Athletics (WA) may have blocked her entry as she did not meet the women’s classification rules.

Abha, who set a national record of 18.41m at the Fed Cup in May, qualified for the world ranking after finishing 21st on the Road to Paris 24 list.

Though there is no official confirmation from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) management, sources say the last-minute revelation came as a shock even to the federation, which had asked Khatua to return from Spała in Poland, where a group of Indian athletes landed last week to complete their preparations for Paris.

“It is more or less clear that she failed a doping test. The most likely reason for Khatui’s departure just days before the start of the Olympics could be that she failed to meet Western Australia’s DSD requirements,” the sources said.

Recalling the cases of South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya, who is still fighting the DSD regulations, and Indian Dutee Chand, who won a favourable verdict in 2014 over hyperandrogenism regulations, experts say this could be one of the first cases where an athlete will not take part in a sports competition due to the DSD regulations.

Experts in the case said Khatua’s blood sample could have been collected by Athletics Integrity Unit officials in Bangkok during last year’s Asian Championships. “Recently, AIU officials collected samples from several athletes, including Khatua, during an inter-state competition in Panchkula,” they said.