Tobi Amusan charged with missing drug tests, risks suspension

Women’s hurdles world record-holder, Tobi Amusan might likely be banned after being charged with an alleged anti-doping rule violation.

Amusan revealed this herself in a post on her Instagram page early Wednesday, July 19, 2023, saying the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged her with an alleged violation of missing three tests within 12 months; an allegation she has vowed to challenge.

“Today the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged me with an alleged rule violation for having 3 missed tests in 12 months,” she said in a post on Instagram.

The Nigerian athlete set the current world record for the women’s 100m hurdles of 12.12 seconds at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

Amusan, 26, vowed to resolve the charges against her before this year’s competition, set to be held next month in Budapest.

“I intend to fight this charge and will have my case decided by a tribunal of 3 arbitrators before the start of next month’s World Championships,” she said.

“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.’ I have FAITH that this will be resolved in my favour and that I will be competing at the World Championships in August.”

On Sunday, Amusan took part in the Silesia Diamond League competition in Poland, where she set a new meeting record of 12.34sec.

At the Golden Spike athletics meet in the Czech Republic last month, she finished in third place in the women’s 100m hurdles, losing to reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who claimed victory in 12.42sec.

When asked by reporters about improving her world record pace, she said: “Nothing is impossible and 11 seconds? Most definitely”.

But she was less confident about an ongoing debate on raising hurdles to give priority to technique over speed.

“Don’t do that, don’t raise the hurdles. Please,” said Amusan, who is 5’1 (156 centimetres) tall.

The AIU was founded by the International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics) in April 2017 to combat doping in the sport of athletics. The unit functions fully independently from the World Athletics governing body.

Based on this, the AIU is responsible for creating the right frameworks for every athlete to succeed and compete cleanly.

Amusan has allegedly been charged with whereabout failure (missing tests), and according to the AIU rule book, this is what it means for an athlete:

1. You have failed to submit your whereabouts by the required deadline (Filing Failure).

2. You have failed to update your whereabouts or you have not updated them as soon as possible after a change of circumstances (Filing Failure).

3. You have filed your whereabouts on time, but they are incomplete or inaccurate or insufficient to enable us to locate you for testing (training address missing, home address too vague, competition schedule missing or incomplete, no address of temporary accommodation during competition…) (Filing Failure).

4. The Athletics Integrity Unit finds out that your whereabouts are inaccurate or incomplete following an unsuccessful attempt to test you (e.g. an athlete lives in a gated complex and fails to give instructions to the security gate to let the doping control officer in) (Filing Failure).

5. You have filed whereabouts information, but you are not available for testing at the location corresponding to your 60-minute time slot (Missed Test).

And the consequences for any of these actions under the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules state that, any combination of 3 whereabouts failures (Filing Failure and/or Missed Test) within a period of 12 months constitutes an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is 2 years’ ineligibility subject to a reduction to a minimum of 1 year depending on the degree of fault.