Amalaha, whose sample
showed traces of steroids, is the third Nigerian woman to have twice tested
positive in recent years – all of them continental champions.
Chika
Amalaha, Nigerian weightlifter stripped of a Commonwealth Games gold medal for
doping when she was 16 years old has tested positive again.
She now faces
an eight-year ban from the sport, reports inside the games. The past seven
Nigerian doping violations announced by the International Weightlifting
federation (IWF) are all female, and there are two cases yet to be closed, also
women.
Amalaha, 22, made her three
best career totals in her past three competitions and was all but certain of a
place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the 55kg category.
She won this year’s African
Championships, was second at the recent All-African Games, and finished 12th at
the 2018 IWF World Championships, where she posed at the IWF’s “Lift Clean”
display and posted a photo on Instagram.
Elizabeth Onuah, 24, was
suspended for eight years in 2015 and disqualified from first place at the
All-African Games of that year, having already been banned as a 15-year-old for
doping.
In June this year, Balikis
Otunla, 25, a continental champion at 75kg and 81kg, came up positive for
steroids for the second time, having been suspended for two years in 2012.
Amalaha was disqualified at
the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games when she tested positive for masking agents
and banned for two years.
Her positive sample is
believed to be from the All-African Games in Morocco in August, where the Egypt
team landed in so much trouble.
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