sport news Former darts world No 1 and sports psychology expert reveals why it's ... trends now

The world of darts was this week was rocked by a controversial incident at the Denmark Open that saw Deta Hedman forfeit her quarter-final clash against transgender player Noa-Lynn van Leuven. 

The 64-year-old, who has for some time been a vocal critic of the rules that allow trans athletes to compete in female events, had also called for the sport's governing bodies to ban competitors born as biological men from taking part in women's events. 

'I'm not playing against a man in a women's event,' Hedman bluntly told German newspaper BILD following the event. 

She went on to issue a statement on her withdrawal in Save Women's Sport, calling for 'fairness' adding that 'biological sex matters' - having previously stated that she would not be a 'nodding dog'.

The incident has sparked much discussion around fairness and inclusion as to who should be allowed to participate in female sports. 

Former darts world No 1 Dr Linda Duffy, an Associate Professor of Sports Psychology at the University of Middlesex, believes that there are scientific and categorical reasons why trans athletes should not be allowed to compete in female-only events. 

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'Deta is just one of many sportswomen now, unfortunately, who are having to make that choice when it comes to playing against transgender participants,' Duffy told Mail Sport, recounting the events at this week's Denmark Open. 

'It's a choice, really, that women shouldn't have to make. I mean, there's categories in sport for a reason, and the reason being that males outperform females in most sports.'

Dr Duffy claims that the issue lies at the doorstep of the governing bodies and underscored that transgender competitors should still be able to participate in sport. 

'So it's fair to have a category for females to participate in and I'm afraid the boundaries of that category are being eroded by governing bodies, really. I don't put any any sort of blame, if you like, if you want to use that word, on people who are transgender.

'I think it's the governing bodies that are just not being clear on what they're going to accept in these categories.'

She added: 'When you start to talk about these very contentious issues, the first thing people will say is: "You're you're bigot. You don't like transgender people." It's not. We have to look aside from that. It's not about being transgender. It's not about that at all. It's about the fairness of the category.' 

Duffy was ranked as the best female darts player in the world between 1982–1987, and notably lobbied for the inclusion of female darts players at the World and European Championships. 

During her career at the top level, she competed with and against both male and female opponents, winning six women's British International tournaments, the WDF European and World Cup and the Denmark Open in 1985.

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She retired from the international circuit in 1987 but continued to play at county level before turning to academics, where she completed a PhD researching gender differences in target throwing. 

Duffy drew on her experience from playing the sport in her study and concluded that there are significant physical and psychological disparities between male and female athletes that place the latter at a disadvantage when it comes to competition.

'There are massive differences between males and females on cognitive abilities and visual-spatial ability,' she said. 'You know lots of different ways that we do things. A lot of those are underpinned by testosterone levels. Some are not.'

Her analysis spanned across different studies, with one relating to controlling variables such as height, arm length and experience. Another related to differences between male and female darts players across varying levels of skill. A different study analysed whether practice can affect the advantage one sex could have over the other using a single dart average as a measure. 

Each of her studies revealed discrepancies between the two genders, with male darts players being superior to female players included in the examination. 

'First of all you have to say. Do you think that a transgender person is a biological man or biologically female? That's the starting point for any of this and I can't really speak on individual cases, because I don't know their status. 

'But if you accept that a transgender participant is a biological man - even though they identify as a woman - they have an advantage, an unfair advantage against females, therefore, shouldn't be playing in the female category. So you're looking at either inclusion or fairness. You can't have both.' 

'Obviously, I was interested in darts,' she added, speaking on her research. 'I used darts players as my participants. I looked at every aspect. I always wondered why men and women were so different at darts. 

'I mean the women players I played with at the time, we all practiced hard. We all took it very very seriously. We did everything the men the men did. But the men were just better. It was something

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