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| The President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Evang. Solomon Ogba (2 from left) at an event announcing the reviving of the full marathon in Lagos, with the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon. (Images credits: The Authority newspaper) |
Nigeria has banned eight
athletes for doping, four of them gold-medal winners and one a silver medalist
at the All Africa Games last year.
Associated
Press report continues:
Long
jumpers Chinazom Amadi and Samson Idiata, weightlifter Elisabeth Onua and
wrestler Patience Opuene were all banned following failed drug tests at the
games in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in September, where they won gold.
Wrestling
silver medalist Ebi James Igbadiwei was also banned.
The
three other athletes, sprinter Deborah Odeyemi and para-athletes Sunday Ezeh
and Thomas Kure, failed tests in Nigeria. Odeyemi ran on Nigeria's women's 4 x
100-meter relay team at the 2015 world championships.
Seven
of the athletes were given four-year bans. Weightlifter Onua, who tested
positive for the diuretic Amiloride, received an eight-year ban after multiple
violations.
Nigeria's
National Anti-Doping Committee said the athletes' All Africa Games medals and
winnings would be sent back to organizers.
The
Nigerian cases follow a severely troubled doping control program at the All
Africa Games, which was described as "chaotic" and "ineffective
from the start" by World Anti-Doping Agency independent observers in
Republic of Congo.
National and international
sports federations weren't informed of the failed doping tests for months after
the games, which is Africa's premier multi-sport event.
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