Not the best of time for Team Nigeria at the on-going Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the disqualification of 10 athletes by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics as the track and field events of Tokyo 2020 kick off today. OLALEKAN OKUSAN and OLUWAMAYOMIKUN OREKOYA write on the development following the crisis that engulfed the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) ahead of the quadrennial games.
Nigeria’s chances in the track & field events of the Tokyo 2020 suffered a huge blow on Wednesday after the Athletic integrity Unit (AIU) banned 10 of the 22 athletes for not meeting up to the required doping tests in the run-up to the delayed games.
The AIU is an independent body created by World Athletics (WA) to manage both doping and non-doping issues for the sports of athletics.
According to AIU on Rule 15 of the National Federation Anti-Doping Obligations introduced in 2019, it stated inter alia that ‘in the 10 months before the Olympics, any athlete from a Category A country needs to face at least three no-notice, out-of-competition doping tests, which must be conducted at least three weeks apart’.
Category A Federations are deemed to have the highest doping risk and considered as a threat to the overall integrity of the sport; and Nigeria was included in this infamous threat at the start of 2020 following a continued period of weak domestic testing levels.
The athletes that were barred from competing included Ruth Usoro, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Annette Echikunwoke, Chioma Onyekwere, Knowledge Omovoh, Chidi Okezie, Glory Patrick, Tima Seikeseye Godbless and Yinka Ajayi.
But Sprinter Blessing Okagbare who is one of the 12 athletes cleared for Nigeria, was quick to slam those saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the sport especially negligence of the welfare of the athletes.
Okagbare posited on her social media account: “I have said it before and I will say it again. If you do not know the sport, not passionate about it/Us (the athletes), then you have no business there as an administrator. The sport system in Nigeria is so flawed and we athletes are always at the receiving end of the damages.”
She added: “They were busy fighting over power, exercising their pride over puma contract/kits forgetting their major responsibility- “THE ATHLETES”. It’s sad that this cycle keeps repeating its self and some people will come out to say I am arrogant for speaking…my truth. It is my CAREER.”
Olympian and former Team Nigeria captain Yusuf Alli is pained with the disqualification of the 10 athletes since most of them were to make their Olympics debut, describing it as a major setback to the country’s quest for medals at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
He lamented that such a situation has never happened to Nigeria during his national team career, blaming the situation on the crisis rocking the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
“It is unfortunate that when those in charge were supposed to be focusing on getting the right things done, they were busying fighting over the Puma kits deals and this is what you get when the right things are not done at the right time,” he lamented.
He, however, said that the Nigeria Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) should be decentralized for all federations to be accessible for the agency to conduct regular doping tests for elite athletes across all sports.
“I think it is time we decentralized NADA so that all sports federations can have access to them and conduct regular tests for our elite athletes in all sports. Now it is athletics that we are talking about, it will soon spread to other sports especially football where no test is conducted in our leagues,” Alli counselled.
“We are fortunate that the likes of Blessing Okagbare and Tobi Amusan are competing in the circuits where regular tests were conducted but some of our athletes in American colleges were not tested because they are not competing for the US.
“What would have helped us is for the AFN to plead with the US athletics to assist in conducting doping tests for our athletes. It is painful that some of these athletes will not be making their debuts in Tokyo again with this development,” he added.
One of the affected athletes, Chidi Okezie is heartbroken, adding the disqualification is capable of affecting his mental health.
“We just want to know what’s going on. We are in this hotel stressing out. My mental health is in danger. Please do not think this is a joke. I am close to a breakdown because they told me that I will not be able to compete because we did not meet the required anti-doping guidelines,” he fumed.
Yet Bambo Akani, an athletics meet organiser and administrator was even more forthcoming about what might have transpired: “It’s actually quite surprising that it is mostly the US-based athletes who did not have the requisite number of OCTs, while nearly all the home-based athletes on Nigeria’s team were cleared to compete – it actually shows that Out of Competition Testing (OCT) is happening in Nigeria as it should, while there has been a breakdown in the correct process that should be happening with Nigeria’s Athletes in the US.”
The MoC founder and CEO added: “It is possible that some of them were not aware of or not filling their whereabouts forms so that the testers would know where to find them out of the competition on any given day.”
“I feel for the current US Collegiate athletes who may be more inexperienced in such matters, and this is where it is Nigeria’s failure not to have frequently checked in with all of our Olympic hopefuls to ensure that they were getting their OCTs done. I hope this will be a teachable moment for our nation and hopefully the new AFN board will mark the change in professionalism that is needed to ensure that such can never happen to Nigeria’s Olympic athletes again.”
Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has taken responsibility for the disqualification of 10 members of Team Nigeria from competing in the track and field events at the Tokyo Olympic Games following their failure to meet up with the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules.
The AFN President, Tonobock Okowa, has also announced the appointment of Professor Ken Anugweje as the federation’s head of its Medical and Anti- Doping Commission.
“AFN bears responsibility for any lapses that may have occurred during the process and reassures Nigerians that our athletes’ performances will not be negatively impacted,” Okowa said. “The Athletics Federation of Nigeria has put in place appropriate measures to comply with Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules of World Athletics.”
“The president has taken proactive steps to avoid future occurrences by appointing Prof. Ken Anugweje as the head of the Medical and Anti- Doping Commission of the Federation.”
The AFN president added that while all local-based and top athletes based abroad completed their test, it was the test of the US-based college athletes that didn’t meet the Olympic requirements.
“All our athletes resident in Nigeria and who qualified for the Olympic Games completed the three mandatory tests,” he said. “Most of our top athletes residing in the USA also completed their tests. However, a few athletes in the American collegiate system were tested, but those tests were deemed not to have complied with WADA sample collection and analysis standards. It must be noted that no Nigerian athlete tested positive to prohibited substances.”
Also, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development also expressed its regrets of the unfortunate development of 10 athletes not meeting the testing conditions of the AIU.
However, reigning Nigeria sprint queen and 100/200m record holder, Blessing Okagbare tops the list of 12 athletes AIU has cleared to compete in the athletics event of the on-going Tokyo 2020 Olympics which begins today.
Okagbare who is making her fourth appearance at the games will be competing in the women’s 100m heat today.
Also cleared to contest are sprint hurdler, Tobiloba Amusan who is ranked number four in the 100m hurdles; long jumper Ese Brume who tops the world list in her event coming to the games and Grace Nwokocha, the home-based sensation who clocked 11.09 seconds in March at the MOC Grand Prix in Lagos to seal her qualification for the Tokyo Games. Others are the trio of Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke and Ushoritse Itshekiri will be competing in the men’s 100m while Oduduru will also race in the 200m, an event he holds the national record of 19.73 seconds which he set two years ago in Austin, Texas in the USA to win the NCAA gold.
Shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who made it to the event’s final at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar in 2019 is also cleared to compete. The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Imaobong Nse Uko, Patience Okon-George, Nataniel Samson, and Ifeanyi Ojeli were also cleared to compete and will be in action today in the first semi-final heat.
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