Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay has lost a spot at the World Athletics Championships July 15-24 in Eugene, USA.
This is the result of further doping violations by the Nigerian sprinter and long jumper Blessing Okagbare, said the independent integrity committee of the world association World Athletics.
The 2008 Olympic silver medalist in the long jump and the 2013 World Cup third in the 200 meters had tested positive for a growth hormone in a training test on July 19, 2021, which was announced on July 30 last year during the Tokyo Olympics. According to the Integrity Commission, her ban was extended to eleven years for further offenses “for circumventing the sampling and manipulation or attempted manipulation of the doping control procedure”.
The sprint relay is affected as Okagbare started the sprint relay six days after a sampling at the Nigerian Olympic qualifiers. All individual and relay results achieved by her or with her participation from June 13, 2021 have been canceled, the message said. Okagbare is the first African runner to run the 100 meters in under 10.80 seconds.