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By: Abiodun Adewale.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria says it is still awaiting the verdict of the Athletics Integrity Unit over the participation of Tobi Amusan at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, which hold from August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary, The PUNCH reports.
With exactly one week to the championships, Amusan’s chances of defending the title she won in Oregon last year is hanging in the balance after she was provisionally suspended by the AIU last month for missing three whereabouts tests.
In the entry list published by World Athletics, the women’s 100m hurdles world record holder was listed among Team Nigeria’s athletes, but her participation is still subject to clearance by the AIU.
The AFN also released the list of athletes that would represent the country at the championships last Tuesday, with the world champion and record holder excluded, although The PUNCH learnt her name was on the entry list sent to the World Athletics by the AFN.
Technical Director of the AFN, Samuel Onikeku, told The PUNCH that the entry was still pending AIU’s clearance.
“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,” Onikeku said.
Amusan and long jumper, Ese Brume, won Nigeria’s only medals at the championships last year.
She raced 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, while Brume got a silver medal in the women’s long jump event.
