Finally, Tobi Amusan cleared to compete at Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships
By Emma Ogbuehi
World Women’s 100m hurdles champion and record holder, Tobi Amusan, has been given the green light to compete at the upcoming World Athletics Championships set to begin this Saturday in Budapest, Hungary.
A panel of the Disciplinary Tribunal, by majority decision, on Thursday, found that Tobi Amusan has not violated any anti-doping Rule.
The panel further stated that based on the decision, “Amusan’s provisional suspension has now been lifted with immediate effect.”
This decision was made public in a post on the Athletics Integrity Unit Twitter handle, @aiu_athletics, on Thursday, which TheNiche sighted.
The tweet on X (Twitter) reads: “A panel of the Disciplinary Tribunal, by majority decision, has today found that Tobi Amusan has not committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period.
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“AIU Head Brett Clothier has indicated the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is disappointed by this decision and will review the reasoning in detail before deciding whether to exercise its right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within the applicable deadline.
“The decision is currently confidential but will be published in due course. Amusan’s provisional suspension has now been lifted with immediate effect.”
Recall that the 26-year-old athlete faced charges of three whereabouts failures, which constitutes an anti-doping rule violation for missing three out-of-competition tests within a 12-month period.
Amusan had contested this charge.
This clearance provides Amusan with the opportunity to defend the only title in her career that she has yet to defend, following her successful retention of her Nigeria, African Championships, African Games, Commonwealth Games, and Diamond League titles.
Reports indicate that a tribunal of three arbitrators absolved Amusan of two out of the three missed tests, after the Nigerian athlete argued that the tester had not made sufficient efforts to locate her.
Notably, throughout this process, Amusan consistently maintained her innocence and stated that she is a clean athlete.
She even mentioned on her Facebook page last month, “I have faith that this will be resolved in my favour and that I will be competing at the World Championships in August.”
Meanwhile, many people who reacted to the thread on X berated the Athletics Federation for not doing due diligence before sanctioning Amusan, with some insisting that the she deserves an apology.
Sam Baker 🇳🇬🇸🇪 @dphleg wrote: “Honestly, this is really bad. The negative perception she has received based on this accusation. This is irreparable damage.”
Chris Cooper @coopsrun: “Surely you’ve got to get these things right before publicly putting athletes through the hell of being assumed as guilty?”
Savio @ifeanyi_obinwa: “Finally… 🙏
Charisma Oba Abdulazeez @Charismatic_Oba: “This is great news”
Asiru ABBAS, PhD @AsiruAbbas: “It’s time to reform the AIU.
quinnyRED @quinnyUNITED: “Tobi says she had a test within days of the “missed” 3rd test, so why did the AIU go about this like this…”
Oh’ Kelvin @kelvinekerete: “Do you know how demoralised you’ve made her with that decision?”