Asian Games 2023| Lost medal to a transgender: Barman targets Agasara before deleting tweet

India’s Swapna Barman during the women’s heptathlon on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Four years ago, when Swapna Barman clinched the heptathlon gold medal at the Jakarta Asian Games, she earned everyone's respect, having played through pain (toothache) to achieve the historic medal.

On Monday, hours after finishing out of the medals, she brought pain to her compatriot Nandini Agasara, who won bronze in the heptathlon (5712 points), with a scathing social media post. "I have lost my Asian Games bronze medal to a transgender women (sic) at the 19th Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. I want my medal back as it is against the rules of our athletics. Help me and support me please," Barman wrote to her 20,000-plus followers on X, formerly Twitter, only to delete the post a few hours later.

China's Ninali Zheng (6149) won the gold and Ekaterina Voronina of Uzbekistan won silver (6056) while Burman (5708) finished fourth. It is learnt that Barman, 26, pulled out her post after pressure from the Indian authorities here, who felt that she was giving the country a bad name for her personal gain.

Agasara, 20, was surprised and disappointed by Barman's post. "I don't understand what her problem is. Why didn't she make these accusations earlier? Only now that I have won a medal, she has come up with this transgender thing. This is unfair. This is my first senior international event, and I've won a medal, I'm just happy," she said.