One of the Nigerian quartet of Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili, Rose Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha that won gold in the 4x100m women’s event at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham has reportedly failed a doping test.
The quartet had set a new African record of 42.10s to win what was Nigeria’s 11th gold medal in Birmingham.
A board official in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) told Premium Times of the development pleading anonymity for not being authorised to speak on the matter.
“Just when we thought we were making some headway, this has really brought us back,” the official said.
The AFN is yet to make an official statement on it.
The Athletics Integrity Unit, the body in charge of global doping cases, is also yet to make a public statement on the matter since the result of the ‘B’ sample, which is often the same as ‘A’ is still being awaited.
If confirmed, Nigeria will be stripped of the gold medal and it will be handed to the country that won silver in the competition.
The fact that it is only the relay gold that Nigeria risks losing suggests the culprit is not Amusan who also won the 100m women’s hurdles gold at the Commonwealth Games.
The development is seen as a setback for athletics in Nigeria following the federation’s efforts in anti-doping since the disastrous outing at the Tokyo Olympics.
