Lin secures gold amid gender row

PARIS, France (AFP) — Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting won her Paris Olympics women’s boxing final in style, ensuring that the two fighters at the center of a major gender controversy both take home gold.

A day after Algeria’s Imane Khelif clinched gold at 66-kilogram class, Lin sobbed on the podium having claimed the 57-kg crown with a unanimous points decision win over Julia Szeremeta of Poland.

Lin bowed to all four sides of the arena, before kneeling down and banging the canvas with her fists.

During the medal ceremony, the 28-year-old was initially composed, before breaking down in tears as she stood atop the podium.

Lin said she had tried to block out all the “noise” over the past fortnight, during which she and Khelif had come under intense scrutiny.

“As an elite athlete it is important to shut myself off from social media and focus,” she said.

“Some of the noise and news of course, I heard through my coach, but I did not pay much attention.”

Lin and Khelif have been the central figures in a furore that has drawn fire from the likes of Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.

Both boxers were disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing gender eligibility testing, with Lin stripped of her bronze, only to be cleared to compete in the French capital.

On Saturday Lin, who like Khelif competed without controversy at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, was cheered into the 15,000-seated Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros and again when her name was read out.

The Taiwanese shared the ring and enjoyed a height advantage of 10 centimeters over Szeremeta, Lin using her superior reach and thrusting jab from the opening bell.

Lin momentarily had the more compact Pole backed onto the ropes with a flurry of punches with a minute left of the first round to go ahead on all five judges’ scorecards.

The second round was more of a brawl but Lin kept her cool and her advantage, before sealing the deal in the third and final round, although the 20-year-old Pole refused to go quietly.