Chukwuemeka vows to fight doping allegations

Submitted by Motunde Smith … on 27 August 2009 - 1:06pm

Nigeria's Shot-Put champion, Vivian Chukwuemeka has refuted the alleged claims that she tested positive for an anabolic steroid during the Nigerian athletics selection trials for the Berlin World Championships in Abuja last month.

Chukwuemeka, told journalists in Abuja, Nigeria capital yesterday that she's clean but there are elements in the national athletics federation who wanted to ruin her career and reputation and are now causing mischief with these doping accusations.

Chukwuemeka, who was Manchester Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2002 and captain of Team Nigeria to the Beijing Olympics in 2006, vowed to fight to clear her name and had already complained to the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) to retest her B sample, which will be carried out in Germany.

She also said the Nigerian team doctor and the secretary of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) wanted her to sign a document accepting the alleged drug consumption, which she turned down.

Chukwuemeka also rejected claims that the initial test was carried on her at the 4th CAA Super Grand Prix in Abuja on July 18th, insisting that the the only test conducted on her was during the NNPC/Mobil Athletics Championship - the World Championship Trial which was between July 23rd-25th.

She also revealed that the testing procedures was strewn with errors as the result of her test and the number of the athlete were the same as that of Gloria Kemasuode, another athlete alleged to have fail the same test. And she has vowed to continue to protest her innocence.

"This is a sabotage. I am clean, I did not take drugs. I think some people just wanted to kill me. May be some people in the AFN don't like me for being vocal, but I am assuring them I will fight to the end to clear my name," she said.

"They tested me with Gloria Kemasuode and we are having the same number.

"During the Berlin Athletics Championship my secretary and the president called me and said I had tested positive to banned drugs, and during the hearing the doctor and the secretary said I should just sign a paper saying that I accepted the offence, but I said I won't sign any paper," she added.

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