PARIS: One of two female boxers who sparked a gender controversy won again on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics to secure a gold medal.
Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting described it as a “difficult journey” after her 57kg semi-final victory over Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman.
That victory came 24 hours after Algeria's Imane Khelif reached her final.
After the decision came, the Turk made an X sign with her fingers, just like Lina's other defeated opponent did in the previous match.
Kahraman then declined to say what that meant. In most cases, males have both an X and a Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes.
Lin and Khelif are competing in Paris despite being disqualified from the world championships last year by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.
On the track, American sprinter Quincy Hall stormed to the line to win a thrilling men's 400m.
Hall became the fourth-fastest one-lap runner in history when he clocked 43.40s to deny Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith gold.
The action ended a 16-year drought for the US. Zambian Muzala Samukong took the bronze.
“I'm not giving up,” Hall said. “I just got the nerve. I'm grinding. I got the determination.
“Anything that comes to mind is what brings me to this line. I think of all the pain, all the pain.”
Noah Lyles put himself in a position to go into the Olympic sprint double on Thursday and looked comfortable as he finished second to Botswana's Letsil Tebog in his semi-final.
Lyles, who won the closest 100m final in modern Olympic history by just five thousandths of a second on Sunday, will be a heavy favorite to become the first man since Usain Bolt at the Rio 2016 Olympics to complete the 100-200 double m.
In other athletics action at Stade de France Morocco, Soufiane El Bakkali joined an elite group of Arab double gold winners as he claimed his second straight 3000m steeplechase title.
Only his Moroccan compatriot Hicham El Guerrouj, who won gold in the 1500 and 5000 m in Athens 2004, and Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli (1500 m freestyle in Beijing 2008 and 10 km marathon in London 2012) were able to do it.
Roje Stona of Jamaica scored an upset victory in the men's discus and Nina Kennedy won Australia's first ever Olympic pole vault title.
Australia's Keegan Palmer won his second consecutive Olympic park men's skateboarding title with some impressive moves.
American rapper Snoop Dogg was among the fans at the Place de la Concorde to see if Palmer could retain the title he won when he made his skateboarding debut at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
The US-born 21-year-old did not disappoint, leading from start to finish. American Tom Schaar won silver and Brazilian Augusto Akio won bronze.
Keegan said his goal was to skate to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics – provided he could keep his younger rivals at bay. “Definitely the goal is to make Brisbane because that's where I grew up, that's where I learned to skate,” he said.
“But you have to keep up with these kids coming through because skateboarding is a young generation sport.
At the Golf National, home favorite Celine Boutier delighted the crowds as she took a three-shot lead after the opening round of women's golf.
Boutier carded eight birdies in a superb round of 65 under par.
Second is South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai, reigning champion Nelly Korda fought back from a poor opening stretch of holes to finish at even par, seven strokes behind Boutier.
The first gold from the weightlifting program was won by Li Fabin, who retained the Olympic title up to 61 kilograms.
In track cycling, Australia ended a 20-year wait for an Olympic men's team gold medal, while Games road champion Kristen Faulkner helped the United States to the women's title.
In another blistering day at the velodrome, Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen broke the men's sprint world record, clocking 9.088 seconds.
Host nation France crashed out in men's handball, an event they had hoped would produce a gold medal, as the reigning champions lost 35-34 to Germany.
In another development, Australian Olympic hockey player Tom Craig was arrested on suspicion of buying cocaine from a dealer in Paris. His team said he was later released with a warning from a French judge.
In the medals table, the USA moved to 27 golds, two ahead of China, while Australia moved into third place with 18 golds.
