Tobi Amusan, women’s record holder in 100 hurdles, charged with missing 3 drug tests
World-record hurdler Tobi Amusan says she has been charged with an anti-doping rules violation for missing three drug tests in the span of 12 months.
The Nigerian posted the news on her Instagram account Tuesday and said she would fight the charges.
“I am a CLEAN athlete, and I am regularly (maybe more than usual) tested by the AIU,” she wrote, in referencing the Athletics Integrity Unit, which oversees doping issues in international track and is the agency that charged her with the violation.
At world championships in Oregon last year, Amusan stunned a still-arriving crowd by setting the world record with a time of 12.12 seconds in the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles. She came back about 90 minutes later to win the gold medal in 12.06, but that time did not go into the record books because there was too strong a tailwind.
“When I watched the record, I was like ‘Whoa, who did that?’” Amusan said of her reaction upon seeing her time pop up on the scoreboard.
Amusan went to college at Texas El-Paso and had been training partners with Nigerian UTEP alum Blessing Okagbare. Okagbare is serving an 11-year ban for multiple doping violations, stemming from a federal investigation into an El Paso doctor who pleaded guilty to distributing human-growth hormone and other banned substances.
Missing three doping tests can result in a two-year ban, though exceptions can be made for different circumstances.
Amusan said she was tested “within days” of her third missed violation and had faith the matter would be resolved in time for her to compete at next month’s world championships.
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