Doping: NAAC Set Up Committees To End Ban On Nigerian Athletes

Nigeria Athletics Athletes Commission (NAAC) has set up committees to end bans on Nigerian athletes over doping related issues.

NAAC has resolved to constitute two working groups; Testing pool Initiative and Competition Taskforce to checkmate Nigerian athletes off and on the tracks.

The Testing Pool Initiative it was gathered will be charged with monitoring performance indices of all potential athletes enroute the Paris Olympics by continuously updating the Athletes’ Commission on athletes to be listed on the Random Testing Pool (RTP) of the federation.

The Competition Taskforce will monitor and follow up on non-AFN organised Track, Field and Road-race categories. They will demand affiliation information from meet and race organizers for proper scrutiny. This will forestall maltreatment of athletes in any competition within the athletics space.

Read Also: UCL: Transfer: Chelsea eager to speed-up talks with Osimhen

In 2020, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) added Nigeria to a list of seven countries in category A, considered to have the highest doping risk to athletics.

The countries includes; Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine, Morocco and Nigeria.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) declared 10 Nigerian athletes ineligible for the Olympics because they were not tested rigorously enough in the run-up to Tokyo Games.

The figure of 10 Nigerians represents more than 40 per cent of the track and field team the country had entered for the Olympics.

The Commonwealth Games Federation stripped Nigeria of the gold medal it won in the women’s 4x100m relays at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

This comes after an investigation on the positive doping result returned by Grace Nwokocha, a member of the quartet.

On Friday, October 27, Nwokocha was handed a three-year ban for doping by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

Also another sprinter, Divine Oduduru has been banned for six years by the Athletics Integrity Union (AIU) for two Anti-Doping Rule Violations.

Oduduru is the second person identified in the doping case of former Champion Blessing Okagbare, who was handed a career ending 11-year ban.