Explained: Why Tobi Amusan is allegedly facing doping violation charges by AIU

World Record (WR) holder Tobi Amusan released a statement saying she has allegedly been charged with doping violation by the AIU. Here’s why.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has allegedly charged Tobi Amusan with doping violation, with claims she has three missing tests within twelve months.

This claim was revealed by Amusan on her Instagram page, releasing a statement that she’s clean of the allegation and will fight with everything so she can compete at the World Championships in Budapest.

“I intend to fight this charge and will have my case decided by a tribunal of three arbitrators before the start of next month’s World Championships in Budapest,” Amusan’s release read.

The Nigerian World Record holder and world champion in the women’s 100m Hurdles has declared that she’s a ‘CLEAN ATHLETE’ and has been regularly tested (maybe more than usual) by the AIU.

Tobi Amusan’s charge to a successful title defense at the World Championships in Budapest continued with another impressive win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial meet in Hungary.

“I was tested within days of my third ‘missed test’. I have faith the case will be resolved in my favour, and I will be competing at the World Championships in August.”

Why Amusan is facing doping violations charges by the AIU

The AIU was founded by the International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics) in April 2017 to combat doping in the sport of athletics. The unit functions fully independently from the World Athletics governing body. 

Based on this, the AIU is responsible for creating the right frameworks for every athlete to succeed and compete cleanly.

Amusan has allegedly been charged with whereabout failure (missing tests), and according to the AIU rule book, this is what it means for an athlete:

1. You have failed to submit your whereabouts by the required deadline (Filing Failure). 
2. You have failed to update your whereabouts or you have not updated them as soon as possible after a change of circumstances (Filing Failure). 
3. You have filed your whereabouts on time, but they are incomplete or inaccurate or insufficient to enable us to locate you for testing (training address missing, home address too vague, competition schedule missing or incomplete, no address of temporary accommodation during competition…) (Filing Failure). 
4. The Athletics Integrity Unit finds out that your whereabouts are inaccurate or incomplete following an unsuccessful attempt to test you (e.g. an athlete lives in a gated complex and fails to give instructions to the security gate to let the doping control officer in) (Filing Failure).
5. You have filed whereabouts information, but you are not available for testing at the location corresponding to your 60-minute time slot (Missed Test).

And the consequences for any of these actions under the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules state that, any combination of 3 whereabouts failures (Filing Failure and/or Missed Test) within a period of 12 months constitutes an anti-doping rule violation, for which the applicable sanction is 2 years’ ineligibility subject to a reduction to a minimum of 1 year depending on the degree of fault. 

Amusan became Nigeria’s first WR holder and world champion at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, where she clocked a resounding WR of 12.12s in the semifinals and a windy 12.06s to win the final.