JONE Delai once dubbed the ‘Fastest Man in the Pacific’ says it would be totally unfair for transgender athletes to compete in events against athletes of a different gender in local sport competitions.
“Very unfair and I cannot say anything else,” he said.
“It is laughable,” he further added. The 52-year-old who ruled the blue ribbon event for a decade during his prime said a transgender competing against a female athlete ‘would win an event by a distance’.
“They will definitely win by at least 20-25 metres over the female competitors for sure.
“Will they be recording 10 seconds in the 100m for the main event as far as the girls division is concerned – it is so unfair? He said females would lose interest in participating at the annual Coke Games if the statement was followed through.
“Girls in schools will pull out from competing at the Coca-Cola Games knowing that the field will be unfair. It is such a sensitive issue,” Delai said.
“Nobody was talking about it but for the last three days when it was initially published everyone is now talking about it.”
Delai’s personal best time of 10.26 seconds which was a South Pacific Games record now stands at the number two position to reigning Pacific sprint king Ratu Banuve Tabakaucoro who has stopped the clock at 10.22 seconds.
Delai was responding to Athletics Fiji president Vuli Waqa’s statement that transgender athletes would be allowed to participate at the annual Coke Games in view of New Zealand transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard winning gold in the women’s weightlifting at the Pacific Games, Samoa, earlier in the year.
Hubbard, 41, had earlier competed as Gavin Hubbard in the men’s competition as a weight lifter before transitioning in his mid-30s.
Meanwhile former Olympian Vaciseva Tavaga who competed in the women’s 100 metres at the 1992 Summer Olympics refused to offer any comments when questioned.
Vaciseva Tavaga is an inductee in the Fiji Sports Hall of Fame and a former Fiji Sportswoman of the Year recipient winning it in 1991 and 1995 respectively.
“Transgender” describes an individual whose gender identity (one’s internal psychological identification as a boy/man or girl/woman) does not match the person’s sex at birth.
For example, a male-to-female (MTF) transgender person is someone who was born with a male body, but who identifies as a girl or a woman.
A female-to-male (FTM) transgender person is someone who was born with a female body but who identifies as a boy or a man.
