Nigerian Athletes with outstanding Out of Competition Tests (OCTs) have taken the test today, July 26th and await results tomorrow before returning to the Games Village.
According to the rules, they are expected to have three OCTs before they can compete. The concerned athletes missed either one or two tests because of unavoidable reasons. Some were in school in America as part of the NCAA and had not completed the three OCTs prior to joining the Olympic team. Also, some of the athletes are late qualifiers and showed up late on the Nigerian Olympics radar, not leaving enough number of weeks to mandatorily space the tests.
Finally, some athletes did not complete their whereabouts form which is a requirement for such testing. The whereabouts provide information about their location. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) crisis which created two parallel leaderships likely also contributed to the situation due to the delay of important information from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) during the crisis.
According to a release by the Nigeria Olympic Committee PRO Phemmy Adetula, Favour Ofili and Ruth Usoro, both US based NCAA collegiate athletes have completed two of the three mandatory OCTs required and are awaiting final clearance.
Team Nigeria athletes are putting finishing touches to their preparation as Athletics commences on Friday, July 30th. They will be led by Blessing Okagbare whose experience and bright performances will be a tonic to the squad. Alongside Okagbare are other athletes namely: Oluwatobi Amusan; Ese Brume; Divine Oduduru; Grace Nwokocha; Chukwuebuka Enewechi; Enoch Adegoke; Usheoritse Itshekiri; Patience Okon-George; Imaobong Uko and Emmanuel Ojeli.
