Azerbaijani female athletes will undergo SRY gene screening before international competitions

All Azerbaijani female athletes will undergo gender testing before world series competitions.

Idman.biz reports that Maharram Sultanzade, Secretary General of the Azerbaijan Athletics Federation (AAF), informed Sportnet.az about this.

According to him, such a decision was made by World Athletics. According to the decision, female athletes must undergo SRY gene screening before prestigious competitions such as world and European championships, Diamond League and Continental Tour: "SRY gene screening is a molecular genetic study. The purpose is to analyze the SRY gene on the Y chromosome, which is considered the leading factor in the development of male characteristics. Tests are carried out to determine whether there is a male Y chromosome in the body. Azerbaijan has had such opportunities since the COVID-19 tests were conducted, and the analyzes will be conducted in our country. Screening will be performed by saliva scraping or blood test. If male hormones are found in women, they will not be allowed to compete. Until now, there have been cases of women with male hormones participating in men's competitions. The tests are carried out precisely to prevent such cases. According to the recommendation of World Athletics, the gender test should be carried out by September 1 and sent to the supreme athletics body, and a ticket for the world championship should not be purchased until the results are known."

Sultanzade said that no Azerbaijani female athlete will participate in the world athletics championship to be held in Tokyo, Japan, on September 13-21. For this reason, the AAF official noted that the pre-competition test will be conducted before other prestigious tournaments in which female athletes will participate: "Azerbaijan will be represented at the world championship only by male athlete Elham Naghiyev. He will participate in sprint races. Hammer thrower Anna Skidan will not be able to go to the championship because she recently became a mother. Triple jumper Nazim Babayev is preparing for the VI Islamic Solidarity Games, which will be held in November. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to maintain peak form in two important competitions - both the world championship and the Islamic Solidarity Games. Therefore, it was decided that Babayev would participate in the Games."

In addition to Skidan, the Secretary General stated that athletes such as Ekaterina Sariyeva and Lamiya Valiyeva, who have achieved results in international competitions, will be tested before the competitions to be held next year: "Valiyeva is the only athlete who participates in both athletics and para-athletics competitions because she belongs to the T13 category. In this regard, we will also test Lamiya."