JUST IN: Hurdles world record-holder Tobi Amusan set to be banned after being charged with anti-doping violation After being charged with do...
JUST IN: Hurdles world record-holder Tobi Amusan set to be banned after being charged with anti-doping violation
After being charged with doping, women's hurdles world record-holder Tobi Amusan may be banned.
Amusan posted on her Instagram account early Wednesday, July 19, 2023, that the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged her with missing three tests within 12 months, an allegation she plans to fight.
“Today the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged me with an alleged rule violation for having 3 missed tests in 12 months,” she wrote on Instagram.
Last year's World Athletics Championships saw the Nigerian set the women's 100m hurdles record of 12.12 seconds.
Amusan, 26, promised to resolve the charges against her before this year's competition in Budapest next month.
“I intend to fight this charge and will have my case decided by a tribunal of 3 arbitrators before next month’s World Championships,” she stated.
“I am a CLEAN ATHLETE, and the AIU tests me regularly—maybe more than usual—I was tested within days of my third ‘missed test.’ I believe this will be settled in my favour and that I will compete at the World Championships in August.”
Amusan recorded a 12.34sec meeting record in the Silesian Diamond League in Poland on Sunday.
She placed third in the women's 100m hurdles at the Golden Spike athletics competition in the Czech Republic last month, losing to reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico in 12.42sec.
“Nothing is impossible and 11 seconds? Most definitely”.
She was less sure about a debate on elevating barriers to emphasise technique over speed.
Don't raise barriers. Please,” Amusan, 5'1 (156 cm), said.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics) formed the AIU in April 2017 to fight doping in athletics. It operates separately from World Athletics.
The AIU must provide the necessary conditions for athletes to succeed and compete cleanly.
The AIU rule book defines whereabout failure (missing tests) as follows:
2. You failed to update your whereabouts (Filing Failure).
3. You filed your whereabouts on time, but they are incomplete, inaccurate, or insufficient to locate you for testing (training address missing, home address too vague, competition schedule missing or incomplete, no address of temporary accommodation during competition...
4. The Athletics Integrity Unit discovers that your whereabouts are inaccurate or incomplete after a failed test (e.g., an athlete resides in a gated complex and fails to tell the security gate to let the doping control officer in) (Filing Failure).
5. You filed whereabouts information, but you missed your 60-minute test.
The World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules state that any combination of 3 whereabouts failures (Filing Failure and/or Missed Test) within 12 months constitutes an anti-doping rule violation, which is punishable by 2 years' ineligibility, reduced to 1 year depending on the degree of fault.