"The (World Athletics) board has decided to exclude male and female transgender athletes who have experienced male and female puberty from international women's competition," Coe announced at the end of a three-day council meeting.

"The World Athletics Council has taken clear measures to protect the women's category of our sport," he said, adding that the measure would apply from March 31.

The announcement came as a surprise as the body had indicated at the end of January to study a "priority option", to tighten the current regulation now obsolete, which framed the participation of transgender people by asking them to regulate their testosterone levels.

"World Athletics consulted with various stakeholders during the first two months of the year, with member federations, coaches, the Athletes' Commission, the IOC and transgender and human rights organisations. We noted the lack of support for the proposed option at first," the body said in a statement.

"For many, the evidence that trans women do not retain an advantage over biological women is insufficient. They want more evidence ... before considering the option of inclusion in the female category," Coe said.

"We do not say +no+ forever," he nuanced, indicating that a specific working group would be created to study future scientific developments.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had asked sports federations in November 2021 to establish their own criteria to allow transgender and intersex people to compete at a high level.

Russians still excluded

World Athletics on Thursday further tightened its rules for intersex athletes like Caster Semenya, who must now keep their testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol / L for 24 months, instead of 5 nmol / L for 6 months to compete in the women's category.

Above all, the regulations now apply to all disciplines and not only to races ranging from 400m to the mile (1,610m), as has been the case since 2018.

This rule had been denounced by the emblematic South African Caster Semenya, double Olympic champion of the 800m, who still refuses to comply with hormonal treatment or surgery, after losing the appeals brought in particular before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

During three busy days of meetings, the World Athletics Council also took a double decision on the Russian issue.

Russian and Belarusian athletes remain excluded "in the near future" from any international competition, as has been the case since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The position of Olympic sport N.1 was particularly awaited, while the debate swells on their reintegration into world sport a year and a half before the Olympic Games in Paris, for which qualifications have already begun.

World Athletics, however, decided to reinstate the Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF), which had been suspended for more than seven years following a major doping scandal.

An important moment for international athletics after an endless reintegration process, which does not change the current situation of Russian athletes, deprived of competition.

© 2023 AFP