World women’s 100m hurdles champion and record holder, Tobi Amusan was missing from Team Nigeria’s list of 26 athletes for the World Athletics Championships, which was released by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria on Tuesday, August 8.
The list has 11 male and 15 female athletes for the championships, which holds from August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.
Silver medallist at last year’s championships, Ese Brume made the list. She will be aiming to claim gold in Budapest.
Ese will be joined in the long jump event by Ruth Usoro. Sade Olatoye (Hammer) and Chioma Onyekwere (Discuss) are also among the prominent females on the AFN list.
National champion Usheoritshe Itshekiri, Favour Ashe, Seye Ogunlewe, Alaba Akintola, Fakorede Adekalu, and Anunagba Karlington will be spread across the men’s 100m and 4x100m relay races. While Rosemary Chukwuma, Favour Ofili, Faith Okwose, Justina Eyakpobeyan, and Success Umukoro will compete in the women’s 100m and 4x100m events.
Tobi Amusan failed to make the list as she's currently charged with an anti-doping rules violation for missing three drug tests in the span of 12 months.
While the Athletics Integrity Unit has since stated that it would be a hearing on her case before the World Championships, Amusan has vowed to fight the charges and prove her innocence, but nothing has been heard about the proceedings, with just 10 days to this year’s championships.
Technical Director of the AFN Samuel Onikeku told Punch that it was only the AIU who could give an update about Amusan.
“We have perfected the list and it has been released. But unfortunately, it is the AIU who can comment on Amusan’s case,” Onikeku told our correspondent.
However, sources at the AFN said Amusan’s name was included on the list sent to the World Athletics with the hope that the hurdler would be cleared to compete before the start of the championships.
“She is on the entry list sent to the World Athletics; they cannot remove it because AIU has not taken a decision on her. If they remove it now and they say she is free to compete, she might not be able to go again, so the best way is to leave her name there. If they say she is free to compete, fine, if she is not free to compete, they can remove it. But in the meantime, her name is on the entry list submitted to the World Athletics,” the source said.
