Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, Suspended From Tokyo Olympics
The Atheletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) received with great shock, the suspension of Blessing Okagbare by the Althletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for a drug rule violation.
In a statement made by the Federation, it said, it is in the process of obtaining the relevant details of the announcement, after which a full reaction will be issued.
The Althletics Integrity Unit, in the press release, said “the Nigerian 100/200m record holder has been provisionally suspended with immediate effect after a sample collected from the 32-year-old athlete, testes positive for human Growth Hormone.”
In the 2021 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list, Growth Hormone is a non-specified substance and a provisional suspension is mandatory following an adverse analytical finding for such substance under the World Athletics Anti-Doping rules.
The AIU said it collected the sample from Okagbare during an out-of-competition test on July 19th and revealed the WADA-accredited laboratory that analysed the sample notified the AIU of the adverse analytical finding at mid-day Central European Time yesterday, Friday 30 July.
The athlete was notified of the adverse analytical finding, also of her provisional suspension on Saturday morning in Tokyo.
She was scheduled to participate in the semi-finals of the womenās 100m Saturday evening in Tokyo.