Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan has vowed to clear her name after she was charged by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Wednesday for missing three drug tests within a year.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended Amusan for three Whereabouts Failures.
The AIU, on its twitter handle on Wednesday said it has charged Amusan for the offence and that she remained suspended.
The unit stated that the charge would be heard by the Disciplinary Tribunal and determined before the World Athletics Championships.
“The AIU confirms that it has today charged and provisionally suspended Tobi Amusan (NGR) for 3 Whereabouts Failures.
“The Charge will be heard by the Disciplinary Tribunal and determined before the World Athletics Championships,” AIU tweeted.
But Amusan, in a statement said “Today the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged me with an alleged rule violation for having 3 missed tests in 12 months.”
She said she intended to fight this charge and that she would have her case decided by a tribunal of three arbitrators before the start of next month’s World Championships.
“I am a CLEAN ATHLETE, and I am regularly; (maybe more than the usual) tested by the AIU – I was tested within days of my third “missed test.”
Amusa said she had faith that the issue at hand would be resolved in her favour and that she would be competing at the World Championships in August.
“I have FAITH that this will be resolved in my favor and that I will be competing at the World Championships in August. In the meantime, I ask that the media respect my privacy while I address these allegations in my upcoming arbitration,” she stated.
Amusan is the current World, Commonwealth and African champion in the 100m hurdles, as well as the meet record holder in those three competitions.
Amusan became the first ever Nigerian world champion and world record holder in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Championships 100m hurdles gold medal, setting the current world record of 12.12 seconds (+0.9m/s) in the semi-final, followed up by a 12.06 seconds (+2.5m/s) in the final.
