By Patrick Omorodion, John Egbokhan

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, has taken full responsibility for the disqualification of the 10 Team Nigeria athletes from the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In a statement yesterday, the federation wrote,” In a quest to put in place appropriate measures to comply with Rule 15 of the Anti-doping Rules of World Athletics, (AFN) President, Tonobok Okowa has taken proactive steps to avoid future occurrences by appointing Prof Ken Anugweje as the head of the Medical and Anti-Doping Commission of the Federation.

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The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development also regretted the unfortunate development of 10 Nigerian Track and Field athletes not meeting the testing conditions of the Athletics Integrity Unit.

However, the other 12 top Track and Field athletes have been cleared to compete in the Games. All necessary efforts were made to bring the athletes to date with compliance to the WADA regulations by the Ministry.

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“The 10 athletes are principally alternate and foreign students athletes, whose tests did not meet with WADA sample collection and analysis standards.

“The situation is being managed by the Ministry and the AFN which have requested all athletes in the Games Village to remain focused on doing our motherland proud. “It’s worthy to note that the 10 athletes did not test positive for any banned substance, but rather did not meet up with the last of the 3 out-of-competition tests due to the
aforementioned reason.

“ The Ministry noted and commended the decision of AFN to appoint Prof. Ken Anugweje as Head of it’s Medical and Anti-doping Commission.

Vanguard News Nigeria