Team Nigeria athletes not banned for drugs, says AFN

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has said contrary to the reports in some sections of the media, the ineligibility of 10 Nigerian athletes to compete at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics has nothing to do with drug offences.

The federation reiterated that the disqualification of the athletes is due to non-completion of their mandatory three out of competition test (OCT).

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Adeniyi Beyioku, Secretary-General of the federation in a statement issued on Friday said the athletes have done nothing wrong to be labelled ‘banned’ as the screaming headline in a few Nigerian dailies indicated.

“The attention of the federation has been drawn to reports in some Nigerian newspapers that our athletes have been banned. This is far from the truth.

“The athletes were only declared ineligible to compete because they did not complete the three out of competition test that would have made them eligible for only the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“The athletes are free to compete in the many track meetings that will hold immediately after the Olympics across the globe and it will be inappropriate and unpatriotic to tag them as banned athletes.

“The Athletics Integrity Unit did not use the word, ‘banned’ in its press release naming 18 athletes from six countries who are ineligible to compete at this Olympics due to the OCT failure,” said Beyioku.