(AFP) – Nigeria’s Commonwealth Games 100m champion Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria was on Tuesday stripped of her gold medal after failing a drugs test, the event’s governing body confirmed.
The 24-year-old Oludamola had tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine.
Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and The Grenadines will be promoted to first with England’s Kathryn Endacott taking silver and Bertille Atangana of Cameroon awarded the bronze.
“On October 11, 2010, the provisional hearing for Oludamola ruled that the provisional suspension of the athlete would continue until the result of her B sample was received,” said a statement by the Commonwealth Games Federation.
“The athlete tested positive for the prohibited substance methylhexaneamine on October 7. The B sample test has now been received, confirming the result of the A sample test.
“The federation court determined that Oludamola had committed an anti-doping rule violation and that she be disqualified from the Games and all her results at the 2010 Commonwealth Games be nullified.”
Mayers becomes the third winner of the women’s 100m after the original champion Sally Pearson of Australia was disqualified for a false start.
Earlier Tuesday, another Nigerian athlete Samuel Okon, a 110m hurdler, who finished sixth in his final, also tested positive for the same banned stimulant.
Mike Fennell, the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), said that Okon had waived his right to have a B test.
“On anti-doping, we have now conducted 1,200 tests and again I regret to inform you that we have a second anti-doping violation,” said Fennell at the daily press briefing.
“It is Nigerian 110m hurdler Samuel Okon who tested positive for the same substance (as Oludamola). It’s a stimulant and we have notified the athlete.”
Fennell added that his team had held talks with the Nigerian delegation about the embarrassing results and he was “satisfied they are taking the matter very seriously.”
“They are doing their own investigations,” he added.
After the Oludamola scandal, Athletics Federation of Nigeria president Solomon Ogba reportedly said she was given prescription medicine to fight a nagging toothache and that was why she failed the test.
The substance involved, methylhexanamine, is a stimulant that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned drugs in 2009.
It was reclassified earlier this year, meaning it can be used with a therapeutic use exception certificate and was the same substance found in 11 Indian athletes ahead of the Games.