Athletics
Okpekpe Road Race Adopts Full Doping Control
There will be full doping control when the fifth edition of the Okpekpe Road Race gets underway in about two weeks from now.
According to a press statement sent to Sports Village Square by the organisers’ spokesman, Dare Esan, provision has been made for a full doping control for the event which the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has classified as the only international competition/road race in Nigeria in 2017.
The race holds at Okpekpe, a village in Edo State of Nigeria. According to the press statement, all tests shall be conducted in accordance with the IAAF anti-doping regulations.
“There will be mandatory and requested tests. The mandatory tests are those that the organisers must conduct at its expense and includes the minimum four that must be done as a bronze label event viz two men and two women as a mixed gender race and of course those that must be conducted in the event a world record or area record is broken”, said Esan who assured of the organisers’ preparedness to ensure a clean competition come Saturday May 13.
“The testing kits needed for effective anti-doping in accordance with IAAF anti-doping rules have arrived.
“We have a doping station built in Okpekpe for the race. This is where the sample collection session will be conducted by doping control officers who have been trained and authorized by the
“Nigeria anti-doping agency is delegated with responsibility for the on-site management of sample collection session.
“We also have Dr Akin Amao, one of Nigeria’s foremost sports medicine practitioners as the chief anti-doping officer for the race.’
“We are ready for the race and those who qualified to be called elite athletes based on the times they have returned in the last 24 months are the ones open to testing.
“Those running for fun or charity are excluded. We have also advised athletes with illnesses or conditions that require the use of medication listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List to apply for Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) with the relevant agency before coming for the race”, said Esan.
The Okpekpe international 10km road race is the only road race in Nigeria that is recognised by both the IAAF and Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) because its race course has been measured by an accredited measurer using the approved calibrated method.
The race is organised by Pamodzi Sports Marketing, leaders in sports
marketing and hospitality business in Nigeria.
This year’s race which will hold in Okpekpe, a town in Etsako East
Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. It is located about 25
kilometres northeast of Auchi.
Athletics
Former 800m world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse banned for 16 months
France’s former 800m world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse has received a 16-month ban from the French Anti-Doping Agency after missing three drug tests in the space of nine months. Bosse announced he was quitting athletics late last year due to recurrent injuries.
The sanction comes after the 31-year-old missed three drug tests between September 2022 and June 2023. Bosse had announced his retirement in December, seven months before the Paris 2024 Olympics. He had received notifications of breaches three times, with the period coinciding with his efforts to return to a high-level athletic performance despite grappling with a hamstring injury.
The initial breach occurred on 25 September 2022, when an anti-doping controller arrived at his residence to conduct a test within the athlete’s scheduled time slot, but Bosse was not available. He told French news outlet L’Équipe: “I was one foot in training, one foot on holiday.”
Bosse, who was eliminated at semi-final stage of the Tokyo Olympics, was enduring a thigh problem at the time. Following surgery in December 2022, Bosse embarked on a race against time with the aspiration of competing in his fourth Olympic Games in Paris.
On 1 May 2023, authorities tried to contact him again, but were unable to reach him during a time when he was with family in Nantes. “I wasn’t worried at that time because I had forgotten the previous one and so I thought I only had one. At that moment, I gave up completely.”
Then a month later, a controller returned to his residence for another scheduled check, but the athlete was evidently absent. He was subsequently informed a few weeks later of a likely two-year suspension for failing to fulfill such obligations.
Despite feeling dejected and shocked, Bosse attempted to defend himself by attributing the second violation to an issue with the absence of a doorbell.
“I made three mistakes, I accept. It’s true that I haven’t always been the best student when it comes to taking care of my location but, until then, it had never played any tricks on me. I know I should have been more serious but I would like to point out that I have been in the AFLD target group since 2012 and they have all my analyses.”
The 31-year-old was unable to recuperate following surgery on his right thigh last year and had been out of competition since April 2023.
Before his injury troubles he most notably secured fourth place in the 800m at the Rio Games back in 2016, and has yet to recapture the form that led to his crowning as the world champion over 800m in London in 2017. Bosse also got his hands on bronze at the European Championships in both 2012 and 2018.
Since leaving his beloved sport behind, the Frenchman has starred in two reality TV shows in his homeland and focussed on his association combining sport and ecology which he launched with his friend and former international team-mate Bryan Cantero.
Athletics
Nigerian-born Ujah recalled to Britain’s relay squad after serving doping ban
Chijindu Ujah has been recalled to Britain’s 4x100m squad for the World Athletics Relays in May, 10 months after serving his ban for a doping violation which resulted in his team being stripped of their silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Sprinter Ujah was banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for 22 months in October 2022, which was backdated from August 2021 to June 2023. However, the AIU had cleared Ujah of intentionally taking prohibited substances.
Britain were stripped of the Tokyo silver after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Ujah’s anti-doping rule violation, though former UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire had said he would be considered for selection again after his ban.
Ujah’s team mates Richard Kilty, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake also had their medals stripped, with Kilty saying they were left “devastated” since they had strictly followed the rules unlike Ujah.
All four sprinters were named in an eight-man 4x100m relay squad for the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas on May 4-5, giving Ujah another shot to redeem himself before the Olympic Games in Paris from July 26-Aug. 11.
“They have had their fair share of challenges in recent years,” said Darren Campbell, British Athletics’ head of sprints, hurdles and relays.
“But I have had my own discussions with each and every member of the squad and know they are motivated, committed and focused on working together to reach Paris.”
-Reuters
Athletics
A clash of two citizens as Tobi Amusan and Ofili compete in US tourney today
World record holder in women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, will later today attempt to surpass her personal best of 11.10 seconds in the 100m event at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational hosted by the University of Florida this Friday
The race will feature another Nigerian, Favour Ofili. Both will be competing in a power-packed field that will include world championships finalist Tamari Davis and her compatriot Melissa Jefferson, who’s a former US champion as well as Jamaican duo Alana Reid and Kemba Nelson and Abby Steiner.
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