Female snooker star calls for trans competitors to be banned from the sport after Jamie Hunter became first transgender player to win women’s ranking tournament

• Transgender snooker star Jamie Hunter, 25, won women’s tournament in Seattle 
• Hunter, from Widnes, Cheshire, won 4-1 against Rebecca Kenna in circuit match
• Former World No 1 Maria Catalano has called for trans competitors to be banned 
• Hunter vowed to carry on and said criticism was ‘disheartening and saddening’ 

A transgender snooker champion has become the latest to face calls to be banned from her sport after a significant win.

Jamie Hunter, 25, of Widnes, Cheshire, is the first transwoman to win a ranking tournament on the women’s circuit with a 4-1 score against Rebecca Kenna in Seattle.

Now, Hunter has been subjected to calls to be banned from her chosen sport.

Former World No 1 Maria Catalano, cousin of reigning snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, insists Hunter’s involvement in women’s matches is unfair, The Telegraph reports.

Catalano said: ‘I would say 90 per cent of the players on the women’s tour don’t agree with this.

‘I don’t believe that women can compete against men on a level playing field in sport. We are wired differently, we think differently. And I do believe 100 per cent there is an advantage there even in snooker after transition.

Transgender snooker player Jamie Hunter (pictured), 25, of Widnes, Cheshire, is settling after her 4-1 win in the women’s circuit in Seattle

Former World No 1 Maria Catalano (pictured) insists Hunter’s involvement in women’s matches is unfair

‘There is a reason they started a women’s tour. Reanne Evans is the best woman player I have ever seen and even she can’t crack it against the men.’

Catalano added that she may even be forced to pull out from competing in the game herself.

She said: ‘It is just not fair, biological women are being shut down by being told that it is only a hate thing. And it isn’t.’

In response, Hunter said it was ‘disheartening and saddening’ if Catalano was upset, but insisted she was doing her best to ‘grow the sport’ and ‘not ruin it’.

Vowing not to be put off competing, Hunter added: ‘Now I have won an event, a lot more people seem to have a problem.

‘They weren’t bothered when I was making up the numbers, but now I’m challenging it’s changed.’

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