Kazakh race walker Yasmina Toksanbayeva has been stripped of the gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games being held in Japan. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
She completed the 42.195-kilometre race walk in 3 hours 22 minutes 20 seconds, finishing first.
However, the athlete later announced on her social media page that this result had been annulled.
"Today it felt like I was torn into a thousand pieces... Thanks to my superheroes who fought for me! I am grateful from my personal coach to the entire staff of the Athletics Federation of Kazakhstan, and to the Minister of Sports," the athlete wrote.
The race walker said the situation had been a heavy emotional blow for her and apologised for showing her feelings.
It is worth noting that the Kazakh athlete's removal from the competition was caused by protests filed by her rivals after the race ended. They complained that the ASICS sneakers Yasmina wore during the race did not comply with the requirements approved by the international federation World Athletics.