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Cape Town - Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins has refused to back down from her negative commentary on South African Olympic medallist Caster Semenya.
Hopkins suggested that it was unfair that Semenya competed in women's athletics because of questions around her gender.
READ: South Africans rally round Caster after trolling by UK columnist
Hopkins' first salvo was an article in the Mail Online on Friday, where she wrote that "back in January, Caster even married her girlfriend in a traditional wedding ceremony, appearing in the guise of a man.
"Yet, curiously enough, out here on the track, Semenya identifies as a woman."
News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson joined a chorus of South Africans who jumped to Semenya's defence, arguing that South African law allowed people to get married however they wished.
Hopkins, however, hit back on Twitter, arguing that Semeya's "internal testes" gave her an unfair advantage in athletics.
Hopkins seemed to take delight in the outrage, retweeting several angry tweets aimed at her, including tweets indicating that users have applied to have her account blocked.
Semenya and India's Dutee Chand have been subjected to banishment for failing so-called "gender tests" for having high testosterone levels, a condition known as hyperandrogenism.
According to a study conducted at behest of the International Association of Athletics Federations, athletics performance in women with the condition resulted in an improvement of between 1.8% and 4.5% in specific events.
