Tobi Amusan charged with anti-doping violation
World record-holder in women’s hurdles and Nigerian athlete, Tobi Amusan, has been charged with an alleged anti-doping rule violation.
The Nigerian athlete was accused of missing three tests within a 12-month period by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
Tobi Amusan addressed the report of an anti-doping charge against her on Instagram and vowed to contest the charges and have her case decided by a tribunal of three arbitrators before the commencement of next month’s World Championships in Budapest.
“I intend to fight this charge and will have my case decided by a tribunal of 3 arbitrators before the start of next month’s World Championships,” Amusan declared on her social media platform.
Under World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, the applicable sanction for three ‘whereabouts’ failures is two years’ ineligibility, subject to a reduction to a minimum of one year depending on an athlete’s degree of fault.
Athletics has a three-strikes rule that states if an athlete does not provide accurate whereabouts information for a doping test they may incur a declaration of a missed test, or a filing failure. Three strikes in a 12-month period is an anti-doping violation.
Amusan won the Silesia Diamond League meet on Sunday, her second Diamond League victory this season.
She became the first Nigerian world champion and world record holder in an athletics event with her 2022 victory in Eugene, Ore., where she set the world record of 12.12 seconds.
Amusan was part of Nigeria’s 4×100 relay squad that won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games but were then stripped of their medal after anchor runner Grace Nwokocha failed a doping test.
Another Nigerian, Blessing Okagbare is serving an 11-year ban for multiple doping violations, stemming from a federal investigation into an El Paso doctor who pleaded guilty to distributing human-growth hormone and other banned substances.
