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Sports News of Thursday, 5 March 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: AIU adds Nigeria to doping watchlist

Nigerian Sports Minister - Sunday Dare Nigerian Sports Minister - Sunday Dare

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has added Nigeria to the list of countries with the highest doping risk with less than five months from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Alongside Nigeria, fellow Africans, Morocco, was also added to the doping watchlist by AIU, on Thursday.

Countries worldwide are classified by the AIU in three categories — A, B and C — according to the level of doping risk to the sport, with category A having the highest doping risk to the sport and category C the lowest.

Morocco and Nigeria join Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ukraine as having category A status. Russia has been banned over doping since November 2015.

The AIU, the independent anti-doping watchdog for track and field, said that in 2019, the Nigerian athletics federation failed to report on compliance as a category B country.

“This very serious situation motivated the AIU board to move Nigeria into category A,” it said.

Turning to Morocco, the AIU said that, despite significant efforts, “a number of national-level issues have not been addressed”.

“The doping threat in Morocco remains acute and the AIU considers that more needs to be done to address the threat, where applicable, with the support of the relevant Moroccan authorities.”

AFP