Nigerian weightlifter, Chika Amalaha, has tested positive to a banned substance and faces an eight-year ban from the sport.
Amalaha, 22, whose sample showed traces of steroids, is the third Nigerian woman to have twice tested positive in recent years – all of them continental champions.
The past seven Nigerian doping violations announced by the International Weightlifting federation are all female, and there are two cases yet to be closed, also women.
She made her three best career totals in her past three competitions and was all but certain of a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the 55kg category.
She won this year’s African Championships, was second at the recent African Games, and finished 12th at the 2018 IWF World Championships.
Amalaha was stripped of the gold she won at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with the IWF stating that it will ‘seriously investigate’ her entourage to find out how she came to have amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide, a banned diuretic and masking agent, in her system.
Elizabeth Onuah, 24, was suspended for eight years in 2015 and disqualified from first place at the African Games of that year, having already been banned as a 15-year-old for doping.
