Female Italian boxer Angela Carini says she stopped her Olympic bout against her ‘biologically male’ opponent to ‘save my life’.

The clash between the 25-year-old and her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif lasted just 46 seconds, with Carini yelling ‘this is unjust’ before she fell to canvas and wept having had her Olympic dreams snatched away from her.

Carini was rocked by two punches from Khelif – who had been banned from a major boxing contest before the Olympics – and said the savage force of the blows made it ‘impossible to continue’.

Khelif was thrown out of last year’s world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.

Today’s fight in Paris is now set to become one of the most controversial in Olympic history and has thrown the Games into chaos amid a fierce backlash from the likes JK Rowling, Olympian Sharron Davies and former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Speaking out following her loss, Carini revealed she quit to ‘safeguard my life’, adding: ‘I couldn’t carry on. I have a big pain in my nose and I said, ‘Stop’. It’s better to avoid keeping going. My nose started dripping from the first hit.