15th Asian Games

NEW DELHI, India -- Asian Games silver medalist Santhi Soundarajan of India has failed a sex test and will be stripped of her medal, officials said on Monday.

"Santhi was subjected to a gender test in Doha and we have received the report which says she failed the test," said Manmohan Singh, chairman of the Indian Olympic Association's Medical Commission.

The test, which is not mandatory but carried out if officials want it or a rival protests, was done soon after Soundarajan won the silver medal in the women's 800m on December 9.

She was withdrawn from the 1,500m and sent home once the initial report was handed over to Indian Games officials, an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) source said on Monday.

"The Olympic Council of Asia has been informed. The medal will be taken away from her," the source said.

Maryam Jussuf Jamal of Bahrain won the 800 meters title in Doha where Soundarajan took the silver ahead of Viktoriya Yalovtseva of Kazakhstan.

Soundarajan, 25, had cleared the gender test at the Asian track and field championships in the South Korean city of Incheon last year where she won the silver in the 800m.

She also won the gold medal in the 1,500m at the South Asian Games in Colombo in August and was declared the best athlete at the Indian national championships in New Delhi in September.

This is the second controversy to hit the Indian track and field team within a month. Female shot putter Seema Antil was withdrawn from the Asian Games after she failed a pre-competition dope test.