London Marathon sparks bitter gender row after DEFYING supreme court ruling to allow trans women to run as females: 'It's biological sex!'

Brasher emphasised that those taking part in the mass event would remain able to "self-identify as male, female or non-binary, regardless of their birth sex".

However, Brasher confirmed that elite, championship and good-for-age women's events will remain restricted to those who are biologically female. "Only those born female would be able to compete in the London Marathon's elite, championship and good-for-age women's events on Sunday," he stated.

Discussing the race's rules on GB News, transgender marathon runner Glenique Frank argued that there "is no category" for her, and suggested there should be an "LGBTQ+ category" instead of a "non-binary" category.

Frank explained: "What I keep trying to campaign for is why can't you have male, female and then LGBTQ+, which stands for all the different identities and keeps everybody happy?

"Non-binary and other is to me just a sexual category, it's not gender. So why can't they just keep it fair and to have a category for LGBTQ+?"

Disagreeing with Frank, host Tom Harwood argued that an LGBTQ+ category would force separation of "sexuality" rather than "gender", which isn't a biological advantage in sport.

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Tom argued: "Then you'd force the lesbians and the gay and bisexual people to not run with the straight people? Why would a gay woman or a gay man not be allowed to compete with straight people? Do you not accept that your sexuality has absolutely no impact on your sports performance?"

Echoing Tom's argument, host Miriam Cates interjected, pressing Frank: "Your sex, whether you're male or female, has an enormous impact on your sports performance. That's why we have single sex sports, isn't it? Because males have such an inherent advantage over women?"

Hitting back at Tom and Miriam, Frank accused them of trying to "sidetrack" the debate: "You asked my opinion on the race, and that's what I'm giving you - don't go into another whole category and sidetrack me, because that's a whole other can of worms we need to open and discuss.

"There should be three categories - male, female and then LGBTQ+. If there was a category called unicorn, I could have entered under that, but there's no category for me, for transgender people."

As Frank then claimed that she has "female genitalia" and that "transgender women are women", Miriam hit back and emphasised that transgender women are "not biological women".

Miriam stated: "They're not biological women in law, biology or fact. That is what the argument is about. Genitalia is not what makes someone a woman, it's the fact that you've got XY chromosomes that makes you a man.

"This is about how should the results be recorded, and the organisers of the marathon are saying that they are not going to change as a result of the Supreme Court ruling. They are waiting for further guidance and will continue to allow males to enter as females."

Event director Hugh Brasher said in a statement: "The London Marathon has been very clear about protecting women's rights, that's women from birth, women as defined by the court, in terms of competition, good for age, championship, elite athletes.

"We are clear about what we have done and we are really clear about the competition element - anywhere where there is competition, and that includes good for age, has to be your biological birth sex."