April 30, (THEWILL) – The President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tonobok Okowa, has expressed his desire to guarantee that past doping testing failures are not repeated as Nigeria’s athletes prepare to represent Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
THEWILL recalls that last year’s Olympics in Tokyo, the AFN apologised after 10 Nigerian competitors were judged ineligible to compete after the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), ruled that they were not thoroughly inspected in the lead-up to the Games.
The AIU has classified Nigeria as a Category A country, which means it is more susceptible to doping and must meet additional conditions in order to pick athletes for major championships.
On the basis of Rule 15 of the National Federation Anti-Doping Obligations, ten athletes who made up 40% of Nigeria’s track and field team were disqualified from Tokyo 2020.
According to the rules, each athlete from a Category A country must undergo at least three no-notice, out-of-competition drug tests in the ten months leading up to a big event, each of which must be conducted at least three weeks apart.
Okowa wants to avoid that embarrassment: “We remember what happened at the Olympics where some of our athletes went and were not allowed to compete because some of them did not complete their out-of-competition tests.
“It is sometimes difficult to hold on to these athletes to comply but at the end of the day when we experience the trouble, the entire country holds the AFN. All we are trying to do is to make sure we put the athletes under pressure to comply so that there will be no mishap in the future.
“Right now Nigeria is in category A, which is not so good for us, but we are fighting to get out of that category.”
The AFN established a medical and anti-doping commission last year, with the goal of guaranteeing that “appropriate measures will always be taken at all times.”
Nigeria has competed in 14 Commonwealth Games since its inception in Auckland in 1950. The country has won 236 medals, including 70 gold medals, 75 silver medals, and 91 bronze medals.
Nigeria earned nine gold, nine silver, and six bronze medals in the Gold Coast, with Suwaibidu Galadima winning the only gold medal on the athletics track in the 100 metres T47.
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.
