Monday, October 11, 2010

New twist to 100m: Gold medalist Oludamola tests positive

NEW DELHI: The jinx in women's 100m at the ongoing Commonwealth Games continued. On Monday, gold medalist Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria was provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance. She now faces the prospect of losing her medal. Oludamola attended a Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) provisional hearing on Monday afternoon, which upheld her suspension till the result of the test on her B sample arrives on Wednesday. Oludamola had asked for the B sample to be tested.

CGF chief Mike Fennell had announced earlier in the day that Oludamola had tested positive for methylhexaneamine (MHA), a drug which had afflicted 12 Indian sportspersons in the build-up to the Games. The 'tainted dozen' escaped immediate punishment after WADA shifted it from non-specified substances list to the specified substances list. Saurabh Vij (shot putter) even competed at the Games, without any success though.

Fennell revealed that over 950 tests had been conducted and out of 700 results arrived at so far, only Oludamola had been found positive. The Nigerian got the women's 100m gold after Australian Sally Pearson was stripped of her first position owing to a mistaken identity after a false start.

The 24-year-old Oludamola competed in the 200m semifinals on Sunday but failed to qualify for the final. Oludamola had been quite harsh after Pearson's disqualification and had been quoted as saying: "I don't know why they allow people to participate in competitions if they cannot follow the rules."

TOI

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