Nigerian Teenage weightlifter at the ongoing
Commonwealth Games, Chika Amalaha has been stripped of her Commonwealth Games
gold medal a week after failing a drugs test in Glasgow.
It was confirmed on today morning that the B sample
analysis, requested by 16-year-old Amalaha, had returned another positive
result and that made it inevitable she would lose her title.
At an afternoon hearing of the Commonwealth Games
Federation court, it was confirmed Amalaha would be disqualified, a CGF
spokeswoman confirmed to Press Association Sport.
The spokeswoman, promising a
full statement from the CGF later, said: 'It is correct that she has been
stripped of the gold medal.'
Amalaha went through doping
control after her victory in the 52kg class at the Clyde Auditorium on July 25,
and the results showed traces of diuretics and maskings agents.
CGF chief executive Mike Hooper
said earlier on Friday: 'I can report that the analysis on the Nigerian
weightlifting Chika Amalaha's B sample has been completed, and this has
confirmed the analysis and finding of the A result.'
The CGF disciplinary hearing
was chaired by the federation's president, Malaysian Prince Imran.
Their decision brings a sorry
saga to its natural conclusion, with Amalaha having provided an early feel-good
story before the full context of her achievement was revealed.
She had set Games records in
her weight category in both the snatch and overall elements, and said
afterwards: 'I'm absolutely delighted. I wasn't coming here to go for gold, I
just wanted to break my own record. I'm so happy that I'm going home with gold
in my first Commonwealth Games.'
Amalaha spoke of the 'pain and
dedication that got me here', yet Tuesday saw the announcement of her failed
drugs test.
World Anti-Doping Agency
president Sir Craig Reedie expressed his shock on Tuesday that someone so young
should have failed a doping test, saying: 'I am very disappointed that somebody
as young as that appears to have committed an offence at a multi-sport event
like the Commonwealth Games.'
Drug use in weightlifting has
begged questions over the sport's continued participation in the Commonwealth
programme.
Nigerian weightlifting also has
a history of drugs offences. The Nigerian Weightlifting Federation was
suspended for repeated doping violations by the International Weightlifting
Federation in 2001 and banned from competing in the following year's Manchester
Commonwealth Games
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