Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting became the second boxer at the centre of a gender eligibility row to secure a medal at the Paris Olympics as she reached the semi-finals of the women’s featherweight division.

The 28-year-old beat Bulgarian Svetlana Staneva by unanimous decision.

A visibly frustrated Staneva, 34, left the arena making a cross with her fingers, shouting “no, no”.

A scrappy fight threatened to boil over at times with Staneva regularly complaining about Lin’s use of elbows.

Before the bout, the Bulgarian Boxing Federation said it “strongly opposed” Lin’s participation.

Like Algerian welterweight Imane Khelif who progressed on Saturday, Lin is competing in Paris despite being banned from last year’s World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The fighters were reported to have failed gender eligibility tests at the Worlds, a situation which has sparked huge controversy.

Lin will face Brazil’s 2023 Pan American Games champion Jucielen Romeu or Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman in Wednesday’s semi-finals.

Even if she loses she will take home a bronze medal.

The pair met in the quarter-finals of last year’s World Championships with Lin winning before she was disqualified. As a result, Staneva was promoted to bronze medallist.

The IBA said Lin, like Khelif, had “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out” in its regulations.

In an interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan on Thursday, IBA chief executive Chris Roberts said XY chromosomes were found in “both cases”.

But the IOC, which runs boxing at the Olympics and suspended the Russia-led IBA because of concerns over its finances, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging in 2019, has raised doubts over the accuracy of the tests.

IOC president Thomas Bach said earlier on Saturday there was “never any doubt” the pair are women.

The situation, which has sparked wide debate online, could take another turn on Monday after the IBA said it would hold a news conference “dedicated to the detailed explanation of the reasons for the disqualification” of Khelif and Lin.

Khelif fights in her semi-final a day later.