The winner of Team Nigeria’s first gold medal of the ongoing Commonwealth Games, Chika Amalaha, has been stripped of her medal after failing an in-competition drug test.
The 16-year-old claimed gold in the women’s 53kg category on Friday after lifting at a combined total of 196kg.
The Rivers State-born lifter was previously suspended” by the Games federation after her ‘A’ sample tested positive for a combination of banned diuretics and masking agent- amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide.
She is now “fully suspended” from the Glasgow Games and her result “nullified” following her positive “B’ sample test.
The CGF statement read in part: “The Commonwealth Games Federation has determined that Nigerian weightlifter, Chika Amalaha, has committed an anti-doping rule violation and has fully suspended her from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.”
Dika Toua from Papua New guinea has been awarded the gold medal with the Indian duo Santoshi Matsa and Swati Singh claiming silver and bronze.
Amalaha equaled the Games snatch record of 82kg with her first attempt before lifting 85kg on her third.
She had claimed the pole position by a combined total of 196kg- a Games record- and she would have been the youngest woman to win a weightlifting title in the Games history- according to the International Weightlifting Association.
Amalaha’s ordeal sees Nigeria’s gold medal count drop to seven, plus her six silver and 14 bronze equal a combined 27 medals; yet retains the 8th spot on the medal standings.
She is the first athlete to fail at the ongoing Games, aside some few pre-competition anti-doping rule violations.
The World Anti-Doping Agency recommends a standard two-year ban for a first doping offence.
Meanwhile, Edith Ogoke, Efe Ajagba and Efetobor Apochi won bronze medal each for the country in the women’s middleweight, men’s super-heavyweight and heavyweight boxing categories respectively, after losing their semi-final matches by unanimous decision on Day nine.
Ajagba, 20, lost to Australia’s Joseph Goodall in the men’s +91kg super heavy semi-final, while Nigeria’s only female boxer at the 2012 London Games, Ogoke, 23, was no match for Team England’s Savannah Marshall in the women’s (69 – 75kg) middle semi-final, both on Friday.
Apochi, 26, captain of the Nigeria boxing team, lost the day’s first bout in the men’s 91kg heavyweight semi-final to Canada’s Samir El-Mais.
Women’s freestyle wrestler Blessing Oborududu added a bronze to the country’s tally by beating England’s Chloe Spiteri 3-1 in the 63kg bronze medal final.
