Nigeria’s recent misadventure with doping issues in athletics appeared to have been consigned to a dark past at the pair of international competitions that elevated the country’s stature as an extremely competitive groomer of world class athletes.
Beginning from the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA between July 15 – July 24, where Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan breezed to a world record finish of 12.12s in the 100-metre hurdles to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK between July 28 – August 8, where Nigeria recorded get best ever outing in the history of the Commonwealth Games, carting home 12 gold, 9 silver, and 14 bronze medals to end the Games as the seventh-best team in the competition and the highest-ranked African country, it was enough to believe that the twin crises of having carried out insufficient testing of athletes and the discovery of banned substances in submitted samples of Nigerian athletes, as happened in the during the Olympics, were a thing of the past.
Indeed, unlike the situation at Tokyo, where 10 athletes of the Nigerian contingent were prevented from participating in their designated track and field events due to a shortfall in the number of required pre-game tests that they were supposed to have undergone prior to the Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of clean competitions praised Nigeria’s Athletics Federation adminstration for upping the testing regime and making efforts to improve on the previous abysmal testing record.
In a July statement signed by David Howman, Chair of the AIU Board, the Unit said, “Thanks to significant improvements in most of their domestic testing programmes, those countries categorised as being the highest doping risk to the sport do not have any athletes declared not eligible for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 for failing to meet minimum testing requirements as set out under the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules (Anti- Doping Rules). While Nigeria did a paltry 26 tests in 2021, it has already conducted 157 this term, and the quantum improvement has been hailed even though it is admitted that even more can still be done to totally get rid of cheats in the sports. I particularly commend the Nigerian team. It is amazing what can be achieved when the domestic authorities start taking anti-doping seriously.”
It was therefore a disappointing recall to those dark days when in early September, it was disclosed that at the World Athletics Junior Championships that held in Cali, Colombia between August 1 – 6, a high jumper, David Aya, who posted 2.15m to win the event for Team Delta at the last National Sports Festival tagged Edo 2020, returned a positive test. Amidst a flurry of accusations about fielding athletes without ensuring that they have gone through the appropriate testing regime, Tonobok Okowa, the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and of attempts to conceal the test result, said: “Yes, we just received the test result. David Aya is a youth athlete. It’s too early to start making comments, especially if the boy is not aware of what he took. The truth is, an athlete is responsible for whatever thing he took and it’s not a federation obligation.
“We can’t say anything about that now, especially with my position as AFN president, but we will write to World Athletics to further know what it’s about before we can make an official statement as regards that. It’s a urine test, so we need to carry out our investigations. We need to find out other things like how and when did it happen, or whether he got it medically or from food or drink. These are the things we need to confirm.”
However, to sound a severe note of warning of the country’s renewed zero tolerance against attempts at doping, Okowa said: “We’ve been taking measures to educate our athletes and conducting seminars to sensitise the athletes ahead of competitions, but sometimes some of them take these things, we just have to be careful. “It’s all about sensitisation and we have been doing that. We are not taking anything for granted, that is why we always test them during and after a competition. Athletes that fail drugs tests will be banned; we will support any sanctions World Athletics impose on them.”
However, these strong words preceded another debilitating blight on the country’s reputation to engage in clean sports. And, it cast a dark cloud on that most glorious and best ever performance at a Commonwealth Games of last month.
Last week, the AIU issued a provisional suspension on Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha, one of the triumphant 4x100m women’s relay quartet that included Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Tobi Amusan and set a new African record time of 42.10s, on the grounds that the anabolic substances Ostarine and Lingadrol, were found her in sample A urine collected on August 3, at the Games. A formal statement from the Unit read: “The AIU has provisionally suspended Nigerian runner, Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha, for the Presence/Use of Prohibited Substances (Ostarine & Ligandrol) (Article 2.1 and Article 2.2).”
The 21-year-old, the anchor runner for Nigeria at that relay final, was one of a set of athletes who received a provisional suspension for doping violations in a decision that will have grave ramifications for Nigeria’s recent magnificent sporting performances. This is because athletes who are subject to provisional suspensions are temporarily barred from competition until a final decision is reached at a hearing held in accordance with WADA guidelines.
The doping regulation declares that even if only one member of the team violates it, the entire performance is invalidated, raising the possibility that Nigeria’s Games gold medal and Nwokocha’s African record could be revoked, with no less than a four-year ban slammed on the sprinter. That outcome will be most unfortunate for a rising star and potential serial winner in the track and field space for Nigerian.
The fact that Nwokocha is a talented performer is beyond question. It became clear when, in 2021, she ran a new personal best for the 100m of 11.09s to become the first Nigerian athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. At the National Sports Festival held in Benin, she also took home the gold medal in the 100m. Nwokocha qualified for the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics by running a new personal best of 11.00s in her heat. She competed in the 100m and 200m races at the July 2022 World Championship in Oregon, where she advanced to the semi-finals in both. Nwokocha won the women’s 100m race in the National Trials in June in Benin City with a time of 11.03s before taking the anchor leg at the relay final in Birmingham to clinch the Commonwealth gold with her 4x100m teammates.
It is therefore painful to see such promising talent facing the very real possibility of her professional career being derailed by this doping incident. That is why, while she is under provisional suspension pending the conclusion of investigations by WADA and the result of sample B, there are insinuations in certain quarters, some of whom were involved with Nwokocha during the Trials in Benin, that the whole positive test outcome could be a setup to take her out of competition before she makes it big the way Amusan has done recently.
The suspicion of foul play stems from the fact that, just as the AIU alluded to, Nigeria’s athletes, Nwokocha inclusive, were subjected to all kinds of tests, including Out and During competition dope tests before and after the Trials. The 21-year-old is also prepared to challenge the outcome and has put her legal representative on notice, who has instructed her to make no public statements pending the final WADA decision.
About the Author
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.
