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Blessing ocagable
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The Nigerian world-class sprinter and long jumper Blessing Okagbare tested positive for human growth hormone during a doping control at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
As the independent integration commission of the World Athletics Federation (AIU) announced, the 32-year-old was suspended.
Okagbare had qualified for the Olympic semi-finals over 100 meters on Friday.
The name of the Olympic runner-up in the long jump from 2008 was deleted from the start list.
In the heats, she achieved the ninth fastest time of all runners with 11.05 seconds.
The two semi-finals will take place at 12.15 p.m. and 12.23 p.m. CEST;
the final starts at 2:50 p.m.
According to AIU information, Africa's athletics star Okagbare was subjected to a training check on July 19.
"Growth hormone is an unspecified substance that is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2021 list," said the AIU.
The athlete was informed of the analysis result and her temporary suspension in Tokyo on Saturday morning.
She was the first African woman to break the 10.80 second mark
At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 Okagbare originally won the bronze medal with 6.91 meters.
Because of a doping offense of the silver medalist Tatiana Lebedewa Okagbare was awarded the silver.
At the 2013 World Cup in Moscow, Okagbare won bronze over 200 meters and silver in the long jump.
Her best time over 100 meters is 10.79 seconds, making her the first woman on her continent to break the 10.80 second mark.
She traveled to Tokyo with an annual best time of 10.89 seconds.
It was only on Wednesday that the AIU banned ten Nigerian athletes and ten athletes from six other nations from starting in Tokyo because they had not undergone a sufficient test program in the run-up to the games.
Okagbare was not among the rejected.
After the incident, however, she severely criticized the national sports leadership.
“Anyone who does not know the sport and has no passion for us athletes has no business in the administration,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday: “The sports system in Nigeria is so inadequate, and we athletes always have the damage in the end.
Some people will now blame me for speaking the truth.
But it's my career. «It could now be permanently damaged.
mon / dpa / sid
