Tobi Amusan, the women’s hurdles world record holder, revealed in the early hours of Wednesday that she had been charged with an alleged rule violation for missing three drug tests in the span of 12 months.
Amusan also vowed to resolve the charges against her before this year’s competition, which will be place in Budapest next month.
The 26-year-old Nigerian athlete disclosed this in a post via her Instagram account.
“I am a CLEAN athlete, and I am regularly (maybe more than usual) tested by the AIU,” she wrote, in referencing the Athletics Integrity Unit, which oversees doping issues in international track and is the agency that charged her with the violation.
She said, “Today the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged me with an alleged rule violation for having 3 missed tests in 12 months.
“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.”
According to the AIU, an athlete who misses tests within a period of 12 months is guilty of anti-doping rule violation, and the penalty includes suspension for two years, which may be reduced to a minimum of one year depending on the degree of fault.
Missing three doping tests can result in a two-year ban, though exceptions can be made for different circumstances.
At the World Athletics Championships, in Oregon last year, Amusan stunned a still-arriving crowd by setting the world record with a time of 12.12 seconds in the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles. She came back about 90 minutes later to win the gold medal in 12.06, but that time did not go into the record books because there was too strong a tailwind.
“When I watched the record, I was like ‘Whoa, who did that?’” Amusan said of her reaction upon seeing her time pop up on the scoreboard.
