2020 Tokyo Olympics: Ten Team Nigeria Athletes Disqualified

2020 Tokyo Olympics: Ten Team Nigeria Athletes Disqualified By Sampson Adedeji The reports coming from Tokyo, Japan is not palatable as far as Nigeria is concerned as 10 athletes in the Team Nigeria have been disqualified, BSNSports.com.ng can reports. This was contained in a statement from the Athletics Integrity Unit obtained on Wednesday. 20 athletes from six countries including Nigeria were affected with Team Nigeria the most hit. “20 athletes not eligible for Tokyo 2020 as minimum testing requirements not met by ‘Category A’ federations”, read in part, “Despite significant improvements in the domestic testing programmes in countries categorised as being the highest doping risk to the sport under the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules (Anti-Doping Rules), 18 athletes from the final entries for the Tokyo Olympic Games are not eligible to compete because the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules were not met by ‘Category A’ Federations. “In addition, two athletes from Kenya were replaced by the National Federation prior to the submission of their entries to World Athletics. Appropriate anti-doping measures are in place in their respective jurisdictions. “Among other things, the Rule sets out minimum requirements for testing on the national teams of ‘Category A’ federations deemed to have the highest doping risk and considered as a threat to the overall integrity of the sport. “The key requirement in Rule 15 is that an athlete from a ‘Category A’ country must undergo at least three no-notice out-of-competition tests (urine and blood) conducted no less than 3 weeks apart in the 10 months leading up to a major event. Only then do they become eligible to represent their national team at the World Athletics Championships or the Olympics Games. “For the year 2021, the seven identified ‘Category A’ National Federations are: Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Ukraine. The relevant data for the number of athletes from each federation for whom the testing requirements of Rule 15. In the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics Games, the ‘Category A’ Federations, in partnership with their respective National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs), generally made significant progress with respect to their domestic testing programmes.” The ten athletes disqualified are: Knowledge Omovoh, Ruth Usoro, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tima Godbless, Chidi Okezie, Chioma Onyekwere and Annette Echikunwoke .