July 28, (THEWILL) – In an unfortunate twist for Nigeria’s medal chances at the ongoing Summer Games, 20 athletes, including 10 from Nigeria, will not be allowed to participate in track and field at the Olympics because they did not meet anti-doping testing requirements in the lead-up to the Games in Tokyo
This came from the Athletics Integrity Unit, which runs the anti-doping programme for the sport. It requires athletes from countries categorised as “high risk” because of deficiencies in their testing programmes to be given three no-notice, out-of-competition tests in the 10 months leading to a major event.
As a consequence, each of the seven so-called “Category A” countries had at least one athlete banned from the Games. The countries are Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine. AIU did not release the names of the banned athletes involved.
On their own, Kenya had previously announced that two of its runners, who are among the 20 mentioned in the AIU release, did not meet the qualifications of the Unit.
It was a twist of fate as their removal made room on the squad for 1,500-meter world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who has the world’s best time this year but surprisingly finished fourth at the country’s Olympic trials.
David Howman, the AIU chair, said there have been improvements in the “Category A” countries’ testing programs “but there remains a long way to go in some circumstances.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
