The British Athletics team was left furious after one of our strongest gold medal hopes at the IPC World Championships in Doha was disqualified for showing up to the call room one minute late.

Kadeena Cox, who won gold in the T37 100m earlier in the Championships and French world record holder Mandy Francois-Elie were both disqualified from the 200m, where they had been expected to contend for gold. 

The International Paralympic Committee said the pair had failed to abide by the rules but the British team was enraged, claiming the sport’s governing body had not enforced the law on any of the previous six days of competition. A source inside the British camp said one wheelchair racer arrived to the call room 15 minutes late on Wednesday.

Athletes are required to register at the call room, a marquee tent beside the warm-up track at the Suhaim Bin Hamad stadium, 40 minutes before the start of the race. Cox arrived for her semi-final one minute late but was told she would not be able to race and a subsequent appeal by British Athletics was also rejected.

British Athletics Head Coach Paula Dunn said: ‘I am absolutely gutted for Kadeena and this is an incredibly difficult situation for the athlete and her support team. We feel this is an unduly harsh decision.’

The IPC defended their decision to disqualify Cox and Francois-Elie, pointing to complaints from the British and French team that they had been overly lenient earlier in the Championships.

Director of Communications Craig Spence said in a statement: ‘Following complaints by teams that the call room times rules were not being fully enforced a memo was sent to all teams on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning informing them that the rules would now be fully enforced.’

Cox, who was previously a talented club runner with Olympic ambitions, turned to Paralympic sport after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She competes in the T37 class, predominantly against athletes with cerebral palsy but her condition is exacerbated by the sweltering heat in the Qatar capital. British Athletics said she had been remaining for as long as possible in the team tent less than 100m away.

One of the Britain’s most high profile Paralympic athletes, T42 world record holder Richard Whitehead waded into the row calling for more flexibility from the IPC. ‘Kadeena’s one of the shining lights of this competition, a great character and a young athlete. There’s no real flexibility with some of the rules and it’s about time we have some more clarity.’

Teenagers Maria Lyle and Sophie Hahn were on hand to restore some joy to the British team with two silver medals.

Lyle, 15, set a European record of 13.92sec in the T35 100m but had to settle for silver behind Australia’s Isis Holt who set a new world record, as she had done in the 200m. Meanwhile Hahn, who won gold in the T37 100m on Monday, ran a 26.82sec personal best in the 200m but was beaten by Russia’s Margarita Goncharova.