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Amusan unfazed by AIU appeal

By Daily Sports Nigeria on September 20, 2023

Former world champion and three-time Diamond League winner Tobi Amusan seems unbothered by the latest move by the Athletics Integrity Unit to challenge her racing status after the body appealed their disciplinary panel’s decision to clear her of doping violations.

The AIU provisionally suspended Amusan for three whereabouts failures in a year, but a disciplinary panel overturned the suspension, which allowed her to compete at the World Championships last month, where she finished sixth.

On Sunday, the Nigerian hurdler ended the season on a high as she won her third consecutive Diamond League title in a season’s best time of 12.33s at the Prefontaine Classic – on the same track in Eugene, Oregon, where she won her world title and set a new word record of 12.12s in 2022.

While the AIU came out on Monday that it had filed an appeal on her clearance, the Nigerian is relishing some of the things that contributed to her consecutive Diamond League triumphs.

On Tuesday, she posted a picture mix of her Diamond League wins in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and captioned it, “All glory to El Roi. Keeping my natural hair for every Diamond League final may have its own good luck effect too.”

Meanwhile, the AIU has come under heavy criticism for their seemingly cynical move on the hurdler.

“It’s beyond comprehension, to my mind, that the AIU has no confidence in its own disciplinary committee to come to a fair and just ruling. Clearly, some people at the AIU are determined that Amusan has to be nailed to the ‘drugs cheat’ cross, by any means necessary. I find this deeply disturbing,” journalist Osasu Obayiuwana posted on X.

Some fans also questioned the timing of the appeal.

“When she came sixth at the world athletic championships, you kept quiet. Now that she proved herself by winning the diamond league in a star-studded field, you suddenly remember to file an appeal in order to wreck her career. It’s clear now that you are jealous of her dominance,” Folarin Benson stated.

Another fan, Asiru Abbas, also wrote on X, “You will never succeed in bringing her down. You didn’t appeal the decision to clear Gabby Thomas, you also banned the Mexican athlete that tested positive for cocaine for just six months to show how biased you are. It’s time to come after AIU & expose all the cover-up doping cases.”

Source Punch Ng

Posted September 20, 2023