Last week's landmark ruling on transgender women in Britain will not impact Sunday's London Marathon, with race director Hugh Brasher saying he supports a recent World Athletics decision to gender test to "protect women's rights to compete fairly."
Brasher said he will wait for guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Sport England before deciding if changes are needed for future editions of the London Marathon, which currently permits runners to self-identify their gender, but restricts entries in the elite and championship races to females at birth.
Last week's ruling said only "biological" and not transgender women meet the definition of a woman under equality laws, a decision that confirms that single-sex services for women such as sports can exclude trans women.
"It's really difficult to predict what we would do," Brasher said Wednesday. "I've gone through loads of different scenario planning since the court delivered its verdict, but honestly, we have to wait until the commission gives its report, until Sport England do, because otherwise we're just going on to what ifs, what ifs, what ifs.
"We delight in being both inclusive but also protecting in competition the rights of women, which is incredibly important."
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said last month that female athletes will soon have to undergo a one-time genetic test to compete in women's events, which has been met with criticism.
"I think that what World Athletics have done has been incredibly good for athletics and been really clear," Brasher said. "When you look at the Olympics, you're looking at protecting women's competitive sport, I think it's absolutely vital. The job that Seb Coe has done has put the sport at the forefront of protecting women's rights to compete fairly."
Since it is self-selection, Brasher said it is impossible to know how many transgender athletes are entered in Sunday's marathon.
"Your passport would say your gender, and your gender can say female, even if you were born male. And so this is where getting into the advice that there is going to be from the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Sport England is incredibly important," he said.
"This is complex. We're really clear about the competition element, anywhere where there is competition that includes 'good for age,' that has to be your biological birth sex."