Santhi Soundarajan, an Indian silver medallist at the Doha Asian Games, leaves the secretariat in Chennai on Monday - Reuters

NEW DELHI (Reuters):

Indian Santhi Soundarajan has been stripped of the Asian Games women's 800 metres silver medal after failing a gender test in Doha, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said yesterday.

The IOA said the 25-year-old was asked to undergo a femininity test after the December 9 race and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) then directed India to return the medal.

Santhi's disqualification allows third-placed Viktoriya Yalovtseva of Kazakhstan to claim silver and Uzbek Zamira Amirova moves up from fourth to third. Maryam Jamal of Bahrain won the race.

The Indian media have criticised the national athletics federation after it was revealed that Santhi's application to the state-run railways for a job was turned down after the athlete failed a medical.

A railway official said in Chennai the test was done about a year ago, but could not confirm whether gynaecological or hormone tests were conducted.

Inquiry

The IOA said it would hold an inquiry into the issue which has caused acute embarrassment to Indian sports officials.

Athletics Federation of India (AFI) secretary Lalit Bhanot said the federation was keen not to cause any distress to the athlete.

"I spoke to her and obviously she is very upset," he told Reuters. "We will abide by the rules and regulations."

Santhi, like many Indian track and field athletics, took up sport to find a secure job and escape grinding poverty.

One of five children of brick-kiln labourers in a rural village in southern Tamil Nadu state, she overcame malnutrition as a child to become a middle-distance runner.

"Some such people could be born with unfortunate medical conditions," Dr. P.S.M. Chandran, scientific officer with the state-run Sports Authority of India, told Reuters.

Poor parents

"If parents are uneducated and poor, they may not be aware of physiological problems with their child," he said. He added he was not aware of details of the test done in Doha.

"Issues like this should be treated with sensitivity by the media," he said.

Her family could not even afford a television and watched Santhi's Doha race at a neighbour's house.

On Monday, she was awarded a cash prize of 1,500,000 rupees ($33,430) and a colour television at a function by the Tamil Nadu Government in Chennai, the state capital.

The chief minister then asked her about the issue, the state sports minister Mohideen Khan said.

"She replied her conscience was clear and she did no wrong," Khan told reporters. "She appeared very upset about the whole controversy."

Khan said the Government would not take back the cash award.

"The prize money has been given on humanitarian grounds," he said