Izuchukwu OkosiNigeria women’s 4x100m relay team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games have been stripped of their gold medal following the disqualification of Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha who was found guilty of doping by the Commonwealth Games Federation Court.
Nigerians will remember fondly how the Nigerian quartet celebrated the gold medal feat with wild screams in front of the cameras with some ‘girlish attitude’ but all that sweet memories have been rendered irrelevant.
England have now been promoted to first place, followed by Jamaica and Australia.
Nwokocha had run the anchor leg as Nigeria crossed the finish line 0.21 seconds ahead of England in a thrilling race at Alexander Stadium on August 7, setting a new African record of 42.10s.
She was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) the following month, for the use of banned anabolic steroids ostarine and ligandrol following a sample taken at Birmingham 2022.
Ostarine and ligandrol are both non-Specified Substances, listed by name under section S1.2 (Other Anabolic Agents) in the WADA 2022 Prohibited List.
The Commonwealth Games Federation Court heard Nwokocha’s case in May where her assertion that “a fellow member of the Nigerian team had drunk from her bottle of Lucozade, and thereby caused the adverse analytical finding (AAF),” was rejected.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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