TOKYO :International Olympic Committee chief Kirsty Coventry says she is hoping for consensus among sports about protecting the female category, with fairness of competition the foremost consideration.

Coventry said after her election as leader of the Olympic movement in June that the IOC would spearhead discussions on gender eligibility criteria in sports, four years after the body urged federations to handle the issue independently.

Earlier this month, the IOC set up a "Protection of the Female Category Working Group", including experts and representatives of international sports federations, to discuss the issue.

"What I would like for the IOC to do is to bring everyone together to try and find a consensus amongst all of us that we can all get behind and that we can implement," the I

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