PARIS: One of the two boxers who sparked controversy over gender eligibility rebounded to win a gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting called it a 'tough journey' after winning by unanimous points over 57kg Turkish Esra Yildiz Kahraman in the semi-finals.
This victory happened 24 hours after Imane Khalif of Algeria reached the final.
After the decision was reached, Turk made an X sign with his finger, just as Lin's other beaten opponent had done in the previous bout.
Kahraman later refused 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 Khelief are competing in Paris despite being disqualified from the world championships last year after failing a gender eligibility test by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
On the track, American sprinter Quincy Hall sprinted to the line to win the men's 400 meters.
Currently 43.40 seconds to deny Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith the gold, becoming the fourth fastest one-lap runner in history.
The event ended a 16-year drought for the United States. Zambia's Muzala Samukonga won the bronze.
“I didn't give up,” Hall said. “I just got angry. I grind. I got determination.
“Anything I can think about gets me to that line. I think about all the pain, all the pain.
Noah Lyles put himself in position to go for an Olympic sprint double on Thursday, looking comfortable to finish second in his semi-final behind Botswana's Letsil Tebogo.
Lyles, who won the closest 100m final in modern Olympic history by five thousandths of a second on Sunday, will be hot favorite to become the first athlete since Usain Bolt to win the 100m-200m double at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In other athletics action at the Stade de France, Morocco's Sofiane El Bakkali won her second straight 3,000m steeplechase title to join an elite group of Arab double gold winners.
Only Moroccan Hicham El Guirouz, who won gold in the 1500m and 5,000m in Athens 2004, and Tunisian swimmer Osama Melouli (1500m freestyle in Beijing 2008 and 10km marathon in London 2012) have achieved this feat.
Jamaica's Rose Stone won the men's discus and Nina Kennedy won Australia's first pole vault Olympic title.
Australia's Keegan Palmer won his second straight Olympic men's park skateboard title with some spectacular moves.
American rapper Snoop Dogg was among the fans at the Place de la Concorde venue to see if Palmer could retain the title he won when skateboarding made its Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago.
The American-born 21-year-old did not disappoint, leading from start to finish. American Tom Scarr won silver and Brazil's Augusto Akio won bronze.
Keegan said his goal was to skate in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics – if he could keep his younger rivals at bay. “Definitely the goal is to do Brisbane because that's where I grew up, that's where I learned to skate,” he said.
“But you just have these kids come through because skateboarding is a younger generation sport.”
At the Golf Nationals, home favorite Celine Boutier delighted the crowd as she cruised to a three-shot lead after the opening round of the women's golf event.
Boutier carded a perfect seven-under-par round of 65 with eight birdies.
South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai is second, while reigning champion Nellie Korda bounced back from a poor opening hole to finish tied seven strokes behind Boutier.
The first gold of the weightlifting event went to Lee Fabin, who retained his Olympic 61kg title.
In track cycling, Australia ended a 20-year wait to claim an Olympic men's team pursuit gold medal while the Games' road race champion Kristen Faulkner helped the United States win the women's title.
In another lightning fast day at the velodrome, Dutch star Harry Lavresen smashed the men's sprint world record, stopping the clock at 9.088 seconds.
Host nation France crashed out of men's handball, an event they had hoped would bring them a gold medal, when they lost 35-34 to reigning champions Germany.
In other developments, Australian Olympic field hockey player Tom Craig was arrested on suspicion of buying cocaine from a Paris dealer. His team said he was released after a warning from a French judge.
In the medal table, America is two ahead of China with 27 golds and Australia is third with 18 golds.
