In a bid to avoid any likely international embarrassment of having any athlete testing positive to drugs at the forthcoming London Olympic Games, Nigeria’s flag bearers to the championship will be subjected to painstaking drug test before the Games.
Chairman of the ministerial advisory and coordinating committee for Nigeria 2012 Olympics participation, Alhassan Yakmud, who disclosed this, said the move is to ensure that only doping free athletes are allowed to represent the country at the London Games.
According to him, any athlete that will fly Nigeria’s flag at the quadrennial multi-sport events will undergo three rigorous doping tests and be certified fit before the Games.
He said the nation has suffered international embarrassments of doping offence in the past and will not allow it to happen again. “Any athlete that will represent Nigeria at the London Games would be free from doping and drug related offence. This is to avoid having any drug offence case during and after the Games.
“Our doping test is going to be in three phase. The first set of doping test has been conducted on all the athletes and it will be a continuous exercise.
The second set of the test will be conducted in all off shore-training camps while the third and the final set will be carried out at the Surreys camp where all the athletes and contingent are expected to converge for the final camping ahead of the Games.
Drug has been so embarrassing to Nigeria and we want to ensure that our all athletes are free from any prohibited drug and substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),” he said.
Speaking further, Yakmud revealed that in order to ensure all the athletes to the London Games are in their right sense and focus toward achieving the performance target of the country, special training grant has approved by the minister of sports and chairman National Sports Commission (NSC), Bolaji Abdullahi for the athletes. He said the grant is to help the athletes settle their coaches, physiotherapist and medical bills.
