Monica Iheakam
African weightlifting champion, Balikis Otunla is facing an eight-year ban by the International Weightlifting Federation(IWF).
The 24 year-old Nigerian, who won her second African Championship six weeks ago, tested positive for anabolic steroids for the second time.
The 2018 continental champion at 75 kilogrammes and 81 kilogrammes in Cairo, this year, has now been provisionally suspended because her sample showed traces of metenolone.
Information gathered from insidethegames.biz, revealed that Otunla’s violation is the first to be announced by IWF since it signed the second part of agreement with the International Testing Agency (ITA).
ITA, took over anti-doping procedures, including in-and-out-of-competition testing, results management and athlete biological passport programme.
Otunla was banned for two years from 2012 to 2014 after testing positive for nandrolone.
Meanwhile, Otunla is on the verge of missing out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite being well placed to qualify for the Olympics as one of Africa’s top-rated athlete outside the top eight automatic qualifiers.
In 2015, Nigerian weightlifter, Elizabeth Onuah also tested positive twice and was banned for eight years