Posted in: 28/06/2022 – 11:22
Paris (AFP) – Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbari’s ban has been raised from 10 to 11 years for a new element in her doping case, the International Athletics Federations (IAAF) Integrity Unit announced on Tuesday.
The file of the Nigerian, who won silver in the high jump during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is getting more complicated from month to month following she was initially suspended temporarily during the Tokyo Olympics last summer before the semi-finals of the 100m race on July 31, 2021, as a result of the emergence of human growth hormone in I underwent a test on 19 of it outside of competitions.
In early October 2021, the 33-year-old Nigerian once more fell into a doping test following it was found that she had taken the banned substance “erythropoietin”, and then she was suspended last February for 10 years due to “repeated use of prohibited products” and also because of her “refusal to cooperate”. with investigation.
This time, the Nigerian was charged with evading a doping test on June 13, 2021 in Jacksonville, USA (Florida), six days before her and her colleagues in the relay team 4 times 100m qualified for the world championships scheduled for next month in Eugene, USA, by Winning the Nigerian Championship.
The Athletics Integrity Unit decided to cancel all the results it achieved as of June 13, 2021, including, of course, its qualification and the relay team 4 times 100m to the Eugene World Cup.
Okagbari also finds herself at the center of the US investigation targeting Dr. Eric Lira, the first defendant in the “Rodchenkov Act” case, which allows US justice to prosecute and impose prison sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up to one million dollars once morest persons involved in the case of systematic international activity. regardless of their nationality.
Lira was accused of purchasing performance-enhancing products, such as growth hormone and “erythropoietin”, and gave them to two athletes as part of a doping program in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Americans called the prosecution law “Rodchenkov Law” following the head of the Russian laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, who is accused of being involved in a comprehensive Russian state-sponsored doping system that was unveiled in 2015 and led to the deprivation of Russians from participating in international events.
© 2022 AFP