These are not the best of times for renowned world 100-meter women’s hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusan, over her failure to participate in the mandatory three-out-of-competition dope test which in itself is a grave infraction on the rules on such a matter. How Amusan escaped a ban remains a mystery which has perhaps compelled the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to test the judgment. AIU had filed an appeal against World Athletics’
Disciplinary Tribunal last month overturned the provisional suspension imposed on Nigeria’s hurdler, Tobi Amusan.
The AIU on its X (formerly Twitter) handle, announced that it filed the appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) penultimate Friday – the eve of the expiration of the 30-day window for appeal.
The World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal had on 17 August lifted the ban on Amusan, claiming the athlete did not commit an anti-doping rule violation for Whereabouts Failures. The AIU in its post claimed it would not make further comment on the matter until the conclusion of the appeal.
Indeed, Duro Ikhazuagbe, Thisday newspapers’ Group Sports Editor, himself an athletics guru told this writer that: ”You are suspended. If your appeal succeeds you are reinstated. AIU also has the right to appeal and take the matter to CAS. A top athlete like Tobi cannot claim ignorance of Whereabouts tests unless she has something to hide. I still feel it must be carelessness. Tobi has done enough to get to where she is now.”
What is clear is that AIU wants to test the veracity of the decisions to clear Amusan as provided by their rules books. It is also an opportunity for athletes who may fall into the trap set in the whereabouts rule which Amusan ran afoul of in the future. Indeed, in clearing Amusan, the body provided answers for two grounds out of three. It really doesn’t matter how many grounds. It could have been one. But, one just hoped that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) members would not stand aloof in Amusan’s quest for justice by following through all the processes available to AIU in their appeal. The AFN should be prepared to foot Amusan’s bill for justice at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
These “Whereabouts” flaws would have been avoided had the AFN’s medical committee been functional. After all, Amusan won laurels running for Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games held in London, last year.
Amusan passed previous platforms to get justice over her innocence when the news first broke that she failed to observe the mandatory three out-of-competition dope tests.
Divergent views abound in this Amusan saga! While some view it as the athletics regulatory body trying to apply the rules strictly, yet, some pundits see it as the usual dilemma that has become an albatross for a high-flying Black sportsman/woman. This latter position held by this school of thought is dotted with a litany of examples to buttress their argument. For instance, on March 6, 1993, Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, was banned for life by the world governing body for track and field after its doping commission affirmed that Johnson failed a second drug test that revealed abnormally high levels of testosterone, thus terminating the once blistering career of the Jamaican-born sprinter who once laid claim to the title of world’s fastest human. He suffered the humiliation of being stripped of a gold medal and world record in the 100-meter dash after he tested positive for steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In January 2001, former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was suspended for three months and fined $5,000 by Michigan state officials for refusing to submit to a pre-fight doping test.
It isn’t enough for our sports authorities to litter the media with a litany of congratulatory messages to Amusan. They need to face the brass task of getting the female hurdler to be cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), with less than ten months to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Amusan is Nigeria’s surest gold medal potential if the country’s sports administrators know their onions. It would amount to a crass failure of leadership if Amusan is left alone to face the politics of clearance from previous verification agencies to date.
It is instructive to remind AFN and NOC that AIU has won similar cases which they sent to CAS to adjudicate. What this translates to is that Amusan stands the chance of being banned by CAS if left to face the music alone. Indeed, AIU appealed Salwa Eid Nader (400m) from Bahrain and Christian Coleman of the USA’s clearance at CAS and won.
Amusan’s innocence isn’t in doubt having participated in major athletic meets and cleared by the races’ organisers to have scaled the competition’s several dope tests. But AIU’s appeal smacks of not allowing Amusan to win at CAS to serve as an avenue for future athletes to exploit to escape the sanctions associated with the whereabouts rule. So what if Amusan scales the CAS hurdle if truly she is innocent of any kind of accusations of flouting the whereabouts rule on competitions’ dope tests?
Honourable sports minister sir, this should be your first charge to show that you understand the dynamics associated with this kind of matter. The minister should get athletics experts to recruit lawyers whose forte rests with such matters for proper and informed representation at CAS before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
A gold medal for Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games from Amusan could catapult the country to an enviable position in the polity of sporting nations especially as we haven’t done too well at the global multi-sports competition in the past. The other likely sure bet for a medal is Ese Brume in the female long jump and the question remains, what have we done as a nation to supervise her preparations for the Olympics in Paris next year?
Amusan and Brume are the two Nigerians with a top five ranking in the world for the women’s 100-meter hurdles and the women’s female long jump. Others such as in wrestling are potential medallists with former Commonwealth champion, Odunayo Adekuoroye qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games when she clinched a bronze medal in the women’s 57kg category at the 2023 World Wrestling Pre-Olympic Qualifiers in Belgrade, Serbia on Wednesday. The three-time former champion beat Turkey’s Elvira Kamaloglu 9 to 5 points in the third-place match.
This writer had a good laugh whilst reading the story that three Nigerian boxers had qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. I felt pity for the boxers because they would be fighting for honours only to be taught the new rules hours before their bouts. I couldn’t believe my eyes that we could ask coaches whose knowledge of the fistic trade was outdated. Other boxers at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were punching non-scoring parts of their opponents who knew where to jab the Nigerians to get huge points haul. One only hopes that these set of boxers are abreast with the modern-day rules of the fistic trade.
A few years ago, I wrote here that our athletes shouldn’t be made to rely on philanthropists and sports-loving governors when they require funds to prepare themselves for national assignments. Other countries have several avenues to source funds, such as Sports Lottery Schemes and fund-raisers where the President sits at dinner with the corporate world to show the level of commitment towards such an exercise. Blue-chip firms are given tax incentives for what they pay into the projects’ coffers. The president’s speech will spur others not at the ceremony to join the queue.
Civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation where the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolved.
