With less than five months to Olympics Game, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) earlier today added Nigeria and Morocco to the category A- list of countries marked highest risk of doping to the sport. According to the AIU press release; Nigeria and Morocco was not compliance with article 15, a rule that was instituted at the beginning of last year.
Rule 15- of the World Athletics Anti- Doping Rules sets out the National Federations’ anti doping obligation. The purpose of the rule is to ensure that member Federation have clear anti-dopig obligation, plan a greater part in ensuring a level playing field and elevate the standard of integrity in athletics.
Under the rules- National Federation are categorised annually by AIU Board in 3 different categories-A, B and C- according to the level of doping risk to the sport. ( category A- having the highest doping risk to the sport and category C the lowest)
Nigeria and Morocco now moved to category A from B. The other countries who have being in category A since last year are Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine.
“In 2019, the Athletics Federation Of Nigeria (AFN) failed to report on compliance with the Rule 15 obligation as a category B country. This very serious situation motivated the AIU Board to move Nigeria into category A”, stated by AIU.
AIU acknowledged significant effort from Royal Moroccan Athletics Federation, but still feel the doping threat in Morocco remain acute and more work are needed to be done to address the threat.
