Nigerian Olympic star Blessing Okagbare has received an extra year’s bonus over his doping ban.
This means she is suspended for eleven years – one of the longest fixed-term sentences ever.
Nigeria is costing a place in the World Cup with a length of 4 x 100 metres.
Blessing Okagbare won the silver medal in the long jump in Beijing 2008.
And as recently as the Olympics in Tokyo last summer, she came home on the test run at 11.05.
But when it was time for the semi-finals, the 33-year-old didn’t even show up at the starting line.
At the time, the anti-doping organization AIU was informed that she had tested positive for growth hormone in an undisclosed test on July 19.
Only four days before the opening of the Olympics.
She was given her first sentence in February, when she was suspended for ten years as a “re-criminal”.
Dishwashing out of competition
Further investigation has now shown that Okagbare intentionally avoided doping controls and attempted to tamper with samples even before she left her positive test.
On June 13 last summer, she was said to have contracted doping control and just six days later she ran a relay in Nigeria’s Olympic competitions.
The time was so good that they qualified for this year’s World Cup in Eugene.
But when Okagbare’s suspension of doping is now rolled back in time, that competition is eliminated and the team’s results are deleted.
Nigeria lost an important place in the qualifiers. Those are the rules and we won’t compromise, says AIU chief executive Brett Clothier, according to the BBC.
Eleven is a record-breaking time-limited suspension and Okagbare will be 44 when she is free to compete again.
But others have been suspended for life, including the Canadian Ben Johnson is the best example.