Tokyo Olympics: Nigerian Blessing Okagbare suspended for doping

We will not see Blessing Okagbare at the start of the 100m.

The 32-year-old Nigerian sprinter has just been suspended following a positive test for growth hormone.

A test carried out out of competition on July 19, ten days before the start of the Olympic Games.

"The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has provisionally suspended Blessing Okagbare from Nigeria with immediate effect after a positive return to growth hormone from a sample," wrote the AIU in a statement.

The AIU has provisionally suspended Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria, with immediate effect after an out-of-competition sample collected from the sprinter tested positive for human Growth Hormone, a prohibited substance on the 2021 WADA Prohibited List.

⬇️https: //t.co/qjMyEDfwTY pic.twitter.com/c4opDQdccv

- Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) July 30, 2021

Seventh best time of the season

Flashed at 10 ″ 89 this season, the Nigerian held the seventh best performance in the world of the season and was one of the underdogs of the 100m final, where we expect Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce.

Entered in the playoffs on Friday, Okagbare won in 11 ″ 06 and was to participate in the semi-finals currently being held in Tokyo.

The start of the final will be given at 2:50 p.m. Paris time.

As of Thursday, 23 athletes from Nigeria selected for the Games had failed because they had failed to meet standards for out-of-competition doping controls, the country being classified as "high risk" by the IAU and having to submit to additional obligations .

“The sport system in Nigeria is totally flawed and we, the athletes, are still collateral victims,” Okagbare lamented on Twitter.

The sprinter is coached by the American Rana Reider.

She is part of a very high level group based in Florida and which includes some of the favorites for the 100m men with the American Trayvon Bromell and the Canadian Andre de Grasse.

Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut also trains with them.