• Nigerian won women’s 53kg weightlifting gold
• 16-year-old suspended pending B sample test
Nigeria’s Chika Amalaha celebrates her gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, but she has since failed a drug test. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images
The future of weightlifting as a core sport in the Commonwealth Games programme has again been thrown into doubt after Nigeria’s 53kg women’s gold medallist, Chika Amalaha, tested positive for drugs.
The 16-year-old Nigerian has been provisionally suspended pending the results of a B sample after traces of diuretics and masking agents were found in an in-competition test. Amalaha won the gold medal at the Clyde Auditorium on Friday, setting Games records in her weight category in both the snatch and overall elements.
Mike Hooper, the Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive, said: “We [have] issued a formal notice of disclosure to an athlete following an adverse analytical finding as a consequence of an in-competition test.
“That athlete is Nigerian weightlifter Chika Amalaha who was tested on 25 July. That athlete has now been suspended from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.”
Hooper added: “[the substances] are diuretics and masking agents. In general terms, these substances are on the prohibited list for two reasons – firstly in weight-category sports they can be used to unfairly aid WEIGHT LOSS
… and secondly, their use has been reported in attempts to mask the presence in the body of other prohibited substances.
… and secondly, their use has been reported in attempts to mask the presence in the body of other prohibited substances.
“The relevant processes, as detailed in our anti-doping standard for the Games, are now being followed and Ms Amalaha has pursued her right to have her B sample tested. This will take place at an accredited laboratory in London tomorrow, 30 July. Upon receipt of those results the process will continue.”
Asked about the legitimacy of weightlifting as a Commonwealth Games sport given its history of drug-related incidents, Hooper said: “I think weightlifting is a fantastic sport and a strong Commonwealth and Olympic sport. I think the issue here is about showing we have a robust anti-doping programme in place. We want to SEND A MESSAGE to anybody in any sport who would go down the route of taking any substance to ENHANCE PERFORMANCE that they will be caught.”
to anybody in any sport who would go down the route of taking any substance to ENHANCE PERFORMANCE that they will be caught.”
The Wada president, Sir Craig Reedie, expressed his shock that someone so young should have failed a doping test – and it is understood the anti-doping organisation will investigate how the teenager was given access to the drugs.
Reedie said: “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 been prevalent enough in the past to beg questions over the sport’s continued participation in the Commonwealth programme.
After two Indian lifters tested positive at the Melbourne Games in 2006, the then CGF president, Mike Fennell, said: “If the thing gets totally out of hand and its not being corrected, then obviously we’ll have to take the strongest possible action.”
Nigerian weightlifting also has a history of drug 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 Games.
The Nigerian Daily Times newspaper laid bare the drugs issues affecting sport in the country in an investigation in 2011. It reported: “A tour of the national stadium earlier this year … revealed discarded cases of used syringes, empty injectable vials of stanazol and sustanon, packets and bottles of different anabolic substances.”
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