THE Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has found Nigerian sprinter Grace Nwokocha guilty of doping violation.
Consequently, the body has slammed her three-year ban from sporting activities and stripped her of all prizes she won since August 2022.
AIU on Friday announced that Nwokocha who was a cynosure of eyes at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after winning gold in the 4x100m relay tested positive for ostarine and ligandrol, two anabolic agents in a sample collected on August 3, 2022.
The AIU said that Nwokocha admitted to the doping violation and had accepted the sanction of a three-year ban with a forfeiture of any medals, points and prize money/prizes from August 3, 2022 to September 2, 2022.
“The AIU, the Athlete and the World Anti-Doping Agency (the Parties) subsequently entered into a Case Resolution Agreement in accordance with Rule 10.8.2 ADR pursuant to which the athlete acknowledged that she had been found to have committed ADRVs under Rule 2.1 and Rule 2.2 of the CGF ADR (and the ADR) by virtue of the CGF decision, which is final and binding upon her;
“Therefore, the period of Ineligibility shall be in effect until, and including, August 2, 2025; and in accordance with Rule 10.10 of the ADR (and to the extent that any results are not already disqualified by operation of the CGF decision), the athlete’s competitive results from August 3, 2022 until the date of the provisional suspension imposed by the AIU viz. 2 September 2022 are disqualified with all resulting consequences, including forfeiture of any medals, points and prize money/prizes,” AIU statement partly reads.
Nwokocha’s ban brings to fore the ugly incidents of doping scandals involving Nigerian athletes.
The athlete’s ban brings to two the number of Nigeria sprinters banned this month.
Divine Oduduru was slammed with a six-year ban for doping violations earlier this month.
In 2021, Blessing Okagbare, who won gold in the 100m and 200m at the Commonwealth Games, was also banned for 10 years after testing positive for multiple performance-enhancing drugs.