Amusan Not clear of Doping And No decision taken yet, says World Athlete
Tobi Amusan, the world champion and record holder in the women's 100-meter hurdles, has not yet received approval to run in this year's World Championships, which get off this weekend in Budapest, Hungary, according to The PUNCH.
This comes after various circulating reports said that the Nigerian had been granted the go-ahead to participate to defend her title in the competition.
The AIU temporarily banned Amusan last month due to three whereabouts test failures.
In a statement acquired through the Nigerian track and field club Making of Champions, World Athletics' head of communications, Nicole Jeffery, stated, "Please be informed that rumors emerging in Nigeria that indicate Tobi Amusan has been approved to participate in Budapest are false.
“No decision has been made in this case yet. When a decision is made, it will be announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit.”
The women's 100-meter hurdles world record holder was mentioned among Team Nigeria's participants in the World Athletics entry list, but her participation is still pending approval from the AIU.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria stated it was awaiting the AIU's ruling on the hurdler, with a decision anticipated to be made before the start of the competitions.
“The condition that the World Athletics put in front of her name says ‘pending AIU process’, so we are still waiting for it. But I’m sure we will have it before the start of the games,” AFN Technical Director Samuel Onikeku said.
The Nigerian made history at the championships last year in Oregon, USA, racing to a new world record time of 12.12secs in the semi-finals, before running 12.06secs in the final to clinch the gold medal and become Nigeria’s first-ever world champion and record holder in athletics.
Before her suspension, the 26-year-old had been in fine form, running a new season’s best of 12.34secs at the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland to win her second consecutive race of the season in July, while she also won at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold in Hungary same month.
