Athletics
Okowa thumbs up Nigeria’s junior athletes
Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, President Tonobock Okowa has remarked that the future is very bright for track and field in Nigeria following the unprecedented feats achieved by the country’s young athletes at the World Athletics U20 Championships which ended Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nigeria won four gold and three bronze medals to finish third on the medals table and Okowa has congratulated the team.
‘The athletes and their coaches have done us very proud. They have achieved our best ever performance in the history of the Championships,’ said Okowa.
The AFN President believes the unprecedented feats signify that track and field in Nigeria is on the rise again after some 13 years of more misses than hits.
”This is a new beginning for athletics in Nigeria. We are confident these new set of athletes will be there in Paris, France in three years time to help us also achieve our best performance at the Olympics,’ he said.
Okowa insists our inability to win a single medal at both the London (2012) and Rio De Janeiro (2016) Olympics was because we neglected our youths. ‘Our chances of winning medals at the Olympics reduced because we failed to develop the youths who would have grown to make podium appearances like their predecessors did especially in the 1990s and early 2000s,’ he added and revealed all the individual medals Nigeria won at the Olympics came from athletes who started at the U20 level.
‘From Falilat Ogunkoya, Mary Onyali to Chioma Ajunwa, Blessing Okagbare, Glory Alozie and Ese Brume, they all rose to become Olympic medallists after making their marks at the World U20 Championships.
‘The challenge before us at the AFN is to turn some of the athletes here to potential Olympic medallists by the time we get to Paris, France in 2024.’
Okowa believes with the encouraging support the AFN has been getting from the Youth and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare, the federation is confident of not only norturing to the athletes that have shown the potential to be world class stars at the Nairobi 2021 event but also discover more.
‘The board will meet soon and our programmes for the next four years will be released. Like I said when I was sworn in as the President of the AFN in June, welfare of the athletes and coaches will be top of my list of priorities and I am happy I have started implementing it.
‘The athletes who did us proud were camped at a good facility before the Championships and we went to Kenya with the largest contingent of athletes since we started participating in the biennial event in 1986. We will make sure the athletes, in addition to their welfare get enough competitions to make them better,’ promised Okowa
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan is the winner as the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS has rejected the appeals filed by World Athletics and WADA.
The decision confirms the decision taken by the World Athletics disciplinary tribunal finding that Tobi Amusan did not commit any anti-doping rule violation.
Here is the full statement of CAS.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeals filed by
World Athletics (WA) and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision issued on 17 August 2023 (the Challenged Decision) by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal (WADT) in relation to the hurdler Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Amusan (Nigeria).
Accordingly, the Challenged Decision in which the WADT considered that Tobi Amusan did not violate Rule 2.4 of the WA Anti-Doping Rules (WA ADR) and that no period of ineligibility should be imposed on the Athlete is confirmed.
The Athlete was initially charged with committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) under Rule 2.4 WA ADR following three alleged Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period.
In their respective appeal to CAS, WA and WADA had sought the imposition of a two-year period of ineligibility. The CAS Panel held a hearing on 19 January 2024. Having deliberated, the CAS Panel has issued its decision today dismissing both appeals. The CAS Panel unanimously acknowledged that the Athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within a 12-month
period. Accordingly, the CAS Panel concluded that the Athlete did not commit an ADRV and that the Challenged Decision should be confirmed.
The reasoned award will be published by CAS unless the parties request confidentiality.
Nigeria’s Paris 2024 medal hopeful, Tobi Amusan has been cleared as the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Athletics.
She is therefore cleared to feature at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Amusan is the 100m hurdles world record holder.
The athlete was charged in July last year with missing three anti-doping tests in 12 months but was cleared of the offence by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the sport’s governing body, World Athletics.
The Integrity Unit of the World Athletics appealed the clearance which has now been dismissed by CAS, the final arbiter in the case.
CAS in its statement remarked that its panel “unanimously acknowledged that the athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within 12 months.”
Amusan set the world record of 12.12 seconds in the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2022 and went on to win the title.
She finished sixth in the world championships in Budapest last year.
World Athletics’ anti-doping rules say any athlete failing to declare their whereabouts for a doping test on three occasions over 12 months is ineligible to compete for two years.
An elated Nigeria’s 100m hurdles world record holder, Tobi Amusan has thanked God for her success in an appeal filled against her by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the World Athletics.
Had the appeal been upheld, ,Amusan would have has to miss the Paris 2024 Olymoics.
“It’s ALL GOD” Amusan said in an Instagram post alongside the court’s announcement.
Amusan, who broke the world record during her semi-final race at the 2022 world championships, is a hot favourite in her signature event at the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26.
World Athletics and WADA did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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