Athletics Integrity Unit Awards Blessing Okagbare 10 Years Ban For Doping

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4>Athletics Integrity Unit ban Blessing Okagbare for 10 years<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that Nigeria’s 2008 long jump silver medalist Blessing Okagbare has been banned for 10 years for doping&comma; the Athletics Integrity Unit announced on Friday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The 33-year-old&comma; who is also a sprinter&comma; was expelled from 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&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Disciplinary Tribunal has banned Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare for a total of 10 years&comma;” read an AIU statement&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A copy of the judgement  read in part&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For the reasons set out&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">The Tribunal<&sol;a>&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Finds the ADRVs contrary to Rules 2&period;1 and 2&period;2 ADR proved&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Imposes a period of Ineligibility of five years concurrently on each of the Rule 2&period;1 and Rule 2&period;2 ADRVs&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Finds that the Athlete failed to comply with the Demand and cooperate with the AIU investigation in breach of Rules 5&period;7&period;3 and 5&period;7&period;7 ADRV and imposes a consecutive period of Ineligibility of five years&semi; and<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Therefore&comma; imposes a total period of Ineligibility of ten years which commences on 31 July 2021&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Tribunal also orders that the Athlete’s results from and including 20 June 2021 are disqualified with all resulting consequences including forfeiture of any medals&comma; titles&comma; ranking points&comma; and prize and appearance money&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is no order for costs&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;There were earlier reports that Okagbare was facing three charges after testing positive for human growth hormone and EPO&comma; offences that forced her to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics&comma; the Athletics Integrity Unit said Thursday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;AIU had revealed that Okagbare tested positive for blood-booster EPO in Nigeria in June&comma; in addition to another failed test for human growth hormone in Slovakia in July&comma; which was announced during the Olympics&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Okagbare was also charged with failing to cooperate with the investigation after she disobeyed an order to produce &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;documents&comma; records and electronic storage devices” in relation to the other charges&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Okagbare&comma; a former Commonwealth Games gold medallist&comma; won her first-round heat of the women’s 100 metres in Tokyo before being forced to withdraw when her test results were announced&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Okagbare had earlier denied all the charges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; Punch Newspaper<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;