India, April 18 -- Impersonation is a major concern for Athletics Federation of India (AFI) as it begins the one-time mandatory SRY (sex determining region on the Y chromosome) gene test, which has been made mandatory for women athletes by the world body.

AFI said on Saturday that it is taking all possible safeguards to ensure that nobody cheats and get through the test. It has tied up with a World Athletics-accredited laboratory to conduct the tests, and though they are costly, the federation will bear the expense.

"Impersonation is absolutely rampant. That is why there's a single agency, and we've taken certain steps to ensure that the person being tested is identified and someone else is not giving the test, as has happened in the pa...