The Athletics Integrity Unit, AIU, has further extended to 11 years the ban on Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, a 2008 long jump silver medalist.
Recall that in February this year, Okagbare was suspended for 10 years for alleged doping.
But a document obtained on Monday revealed that the AIU has added one more year to ban after she allegedly failed to respond to the charges by the extended deadline which was June 21, 2022.
According to a copy of the document obtained by PUNCH, it is assumed that Okagbare has admitted the anti-doping rule violations (under Rule 2.3 and Rule 2.5 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules) and to have accepted the consequences.
The Athlete was sent out of the Tokyo Olympics last year before the women’s 100m semi-finals after testing positive for human growth hormone at an out-of-competition test in Slovakia on July 19.
With the ban, the athlete may never feature in any major tournament again until she hits her retirement age.
Afripost recalls that Team Nigeria’s captain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Quadri Aruna, had expressed disappointment over the treatment of athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.