Sports controversy as trans women still being allowed to compete in races and rivals fear death threats
Trans athletes are still competing in sports despite being banned from doing so
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Transgender women are being allowed to run in the female category of races despite being banned from doing so, according to reports.
Six months ago, UK Athletics introduced a ban to prevent them from competing against biological females.
An investigation from the Telegraph has found that a team featuring a transwoman was recently awarded first place in a mass participation race.
An exemption for events entered before the ban has allowed transgender runners to continue to compete against biological women until at least December, too.
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When enforcing the ban, UK athletics said transgender athletes 'may not accept any prize and their results will not count towards any record, qualifying time or mark, or team scoring'.
But this was apparently contravened when a team featuring a transwoman was awarded first place during a running competition last month.
The race director made an 'honest mistake' and said he was in the process of correcting the result.
He said the trans runner had entered the female category a fortnight before the UKA ban was introduced.
The director also said it 'wouldn't been easier if she'd entered afterwards'.
He claims that the runner's time was not initially included in the women's results published online.
However, after the trans athlete protested, they listed her as the second-fastest female.
Rivals are furious over the situation and are unhappy that the runner will be allowed to enter the female category of races up until the end of the year.
One competitor is afraid to speak out publicly on the matter amid fears for her safety.
"This is the unfairness of it all," she said.
“I want to talk about it – and I really do. I know people have had death threats [online from pro-transgender lobbyists].”
She added: “I’ve got to be careful of my safety.”
And she also says years of training is being undermined, too.
“It sounds very trivial but it is actually very frustrating because I work hard and have aimed to be in the top 100 of my age group for women nationally," she continued.
"How many other transgender males-to-females are being classed in these results?
“I train incredibly hard. I do 15 hours of running and training – and things like that – a week.
"I can’t compete with somebody who is a man. And you sometimes think, ‘Why do I bother?’"
The athlete also believes women have been 'let down'.
And she feels they need a category sorted so that transgender runners can go up against each other, rather than biological women.
It comes as a mother of a swimmer in America whose daughter competed against trans athlete Lia Thomas has claimed she was left 'terrorised' and 'scarred'.
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Trans rivals fear death threats and a backlash if they speak publicly
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Kim Jones said: “My daughter dealt with the threat of a man in her locker room for that entire year that Lia Thomas was swimming in the Ivy League.
“That was terrorising.
"The stories from the young woman that had to experience it.
"The idea that she would have to disrobe in front of - a man or that a man could walk in on her =with full rights to the territory while she's changing.
"The lack of dignity and privacy...
“It was scarring. She worried about it for days before going to that first meet and then also again during the Ivy League championships."