12-toed winner’s plea for new shoes

– Being born with six toes on each foot didn’t stop India’s Swapna Barman winning the Asian Games heptathlon – but she immediately issued a plea for shoes that actually fit.

Barman, 21, led going into the last of the seven heptathlon disciplines, the 800m – her weakest event– and managed to cling on despite a fourthplaced finish as her closest rival came in last.

The Indian athlete, who still has all dozen of her toes, said every step of the race had been excruciating as she pushed through the pain barrier in her ill-fitting footwear.

“Normal shoes don’t work for me. There is a lot of pain when I wear any shoe, spikes or anything,” she said after clinching gold late on Wednesday.

“I hope they make special shoes for me because I have a lot of pain. Even warm-up shoes hurt,” she said. –