Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been kicked out of the Tokyo Olympics after she failed a drug test.
A provisional doping ban was handed to her on July 31, the day of her 100 metres semi-final.
The Athletics Integrity Unit announced that Okagbare had “tested positive for human growth hormone” in an out-of-competition test on 19 July.
That resulted in a mandatory suspension, coming on the day that Okagbare was due to race against Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and second-fastest qualifier Elaine Thompson-Herah in their semi-final in Tokyo.
She had finished first in her heat for the women’s 100m on Friday, recording a time of 11.05sec to beat Britain’s Asha Philip and Tynia Gaither of the Bahamas. That put the 32-year-old into a third consecutive Olympic semi-final.
Okagbare, who won Olympic silver in the long jump in Beijing 13 years ago and world championship silver at Moscow 2013, holds the Commonwealth Games record of 10.85 in the women’s 100m, set in Glasgow in 2014.
