Tobi Amusan.
The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) on Friday announced its dismissal of Athletics Integrity Unity’s (AIU) appeal against the clearance of Tobi Amusan’s anti-doping rule violation.
The court made the announcement of its decision in a statement published on its website on Friday.
AIU, had in July 2023, handed Amusan a provisional suspension for allegedly “missing three tests in 12 months”.
The case was transferred to a disciplinary tribunal. A month later, a “majority decision” of the tribunal ruled that the 27-year-old “has not committed an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) of three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period”.
Amusan was cleared of the charge by the disciplinary tribunal.
AIU, later that year, announced that it had filed an appeal against the tribunal’s decision before CAS.
CAS, in its ruling on the case, judged that although, Amusan “committed two filing failures,” the appellant “did not confirm the existence” of a third missed test “which would have been the third whereabouts failure committed within a 12-month period”.
The court ruled that the athlete was not involved in any Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV); that the “challenged decision should be confirmed”.
Read the statement: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeals filed by World Athletics (WA) and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision issued on 17 August 2023 (the Challenged Decision) by the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal (WADT) in relation to the hurdler Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Amusan (Nigeria).
“In their respective appeal to CAS, WA and WADA had sought the imposition of a two-year period of ineligibility. The CAS Panel held a hearing on 19 January 2024. Having deliberated, the CAS Panel has issued its decision today dismissing both appeals. The CAS Panel unanimously acknowledged that the athlete committed two filing failures but did not confirm the existence of a missed test, alleged by WA and WADA, which would have been the third Whereabouts Failure committed within a 12-month period. Accordingly, the CAS Panel concluded that the athlete did not commit an ADRV and that the Challenged Decision should be confirmed”.
With the latest decision, Amusan is cleared and is expected to represent Nigeria at the Paris Olympics next month.
She, in March, won her third consecutive gold medal in the women’s 100 metres hurdles at the African Games.
Two months later, Amusan also claimed her fourth consecutive national women’s 100 metres hurdles title.
