Nigerian track star, Blessing Okagbare will head to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS to appeal the 10-year ban on her by the Athletics Integrity Unit, AIU for out of competition doping violations.
Blessing’s counsel, Chinedu Udora, who made this known while speaking with reporters, said the legal team would challenge the decision of the tribunal and is considering many options, in addition to looking at things they believed were not right.
He explained that some of the evidence used by AIU in handling a ban on 33- year-old Okagbare, who owns the Commonwealth Games record of 10.85 seconds in the women’s 100 metres for use of Human Growth Hormone, were not right.
The lawyer also faulted the AIU for not looking at the result of other laboratories that were not from World Anti- Doping Agency, WADA accredited laboratories.
Head of AIU, Brett Clothier, had in a statement said the decision of the Disciplinary Tribunal to hand the Nigerian athlete a 10- year ban was welcome as it would send a strong message against intentional and coordinated attempts to cheat at the very highest level of athletics.
