Tobi Amusan charged with anti-doping violation

The heroine of the main scandal of the year in athletics was Nigerian Toby Amusan, who surprised experts at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, USA, when she set a world record in the 100-meter hurdles, dropping three tenths of a second from her personal achievement at once. Amusan was convicted of missing three doping tests during the calendar year, and this circumstance threatens her with disqualification and skipping the next world championship, which will be held in August in Budapest.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the Anti-Doping Compliance arm of the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics), has announced that it has found a violation in one of the sport’s most famous female athletes. This is the world champion and record holder in the 100m hurdles Toby Amusan. The AIU convicted her of missing three doping tests within 12 months. In fact, according to the regulations of World Athletics, it is almost equivalent to a positive doping test. For him, the athlete is entitled to a disqualification for a period of one to two years.

AIU announced this news exactly one month before the next World Championship starting on August 19 in Budapest. And the transformation of Toby Amusan into a superstar took place at the previous championship: it took place in the summer of 2022 in the American Eugene. And it was one of the strangest stories that has ever happened in athletics.

Before the American championship, Toby Amusan, despite her rather solid experience (she is already 26 years old), achieved success only at the continental, African level. At the World Championships, she created a sensation. Not being the favorite, Amusan won gold, but her results produced a truly shocking effect. In the semi-final race, the Nigerian ran the distance in 12.12, eight hundredths of a second faster than the previous world record of American Kendra Harrison, and, most surprisingly, three tenths faster than her own personal record, which by the standards of the distance is just an incredible jump. In the final race, Amusan was even faster – 12.06, but the result was not counted due to the tailwind exceeding the allowable indicator.

Her run left the experts tormented in search of an explanation for what had happened.

The most popular version was that Toby Amusan’s miracle was helped by new Adidas studs called Adizero Avanti Tyo Tinman Elite, the sole of which contains elastic carbon inserts and a special foam that facilitates repulsion.

At the same time, in fact, they were developed for stayers, long-distance runners. But, for example, the great American sprinter Michael Johnson, commenting on the incident for the BBC, made it clear that no matter how significant the “shoe effect” may be, Amusan’s speed and progress, in his opinion, still look abnormal and suspicious.

After her triumph, the Nigerian firmly seized the lead in the discipline, winning a number of prestigious prizes. True, she lost one of them just after the doping incident. After the World Championships in Eugene, Toby Amusan took part in the British Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. On them, she got gold in the 4×100 m relay, but quickly lost it, because Grace Nwokocha, who completed her for the Nigerian foursome Nzubechi, got caught on anabolic steroids.

Nvokocha claimed that the drug could have ended up in her body by accident, because a partner drank from the athlete’s bottle at a training camp.

The runner did not reveal her name.

Meanwhile, Tobi Amusan, as it turned out, despite the fact that she actually admitted her guilt in missing three doping tests, expects to avoid sanctions after her case is considered in the arbitration court provided for by the AIU regulations: her meeting will be held before the Budapest championship. In her Instagram account (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned), the Nigerian published a statement. In it, she insists that she is a “clean” athlete and points out that she has been regularly tested. Moreover, one of these checks took place, according to Amusan, a few days before the last “missed test”.

Alexey Dospekhov