MUMBAI, Sept 6: Indian middle-distance runner Santhi Soundarajan, who was stripped of her Asian Games medal after failing a gender test, was in hospital on Wednesday following an apparent suicide bid, police said.

“It is a possible suicide attempt,” police superintendent Kapil Kumar said. “The doctors are yet to confirm what she consumed. She is out of danger now and is not accepting the version of suicide now.”

Local official Jehangir said Soundarajan had taken pesticide in her home town in Tamil Nadu.

“Santhi said she took it because of stomach pain,” Jehangir said by phone from the hospital. “They are going to shift her to a bigger hospital with better facilities.”

Soundarajan, 26, was stripped of the women’s 800 metres silver medal she won in Doha last December.—Reuters