Nigerian sprinter Grace Nwokocha has completed a three-year ban for a doping offence and is now eligible to return to international competition.
The 24-year-old was a key member of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay team that won gold at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, anchoring the quartet to an African record time of 42.10 seconds.
She ran the final leg alongside Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili and Rosemary Chukwuma to beat England’s Daryll Neita and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah.
However, Nwokocha tested positive for Ostarine and Dihydroxy-LGD4033, a metabolite of Ligandrol both prohibited at all times under the Commonwealth Games Federation’s anti-doping rules.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended her on 21 August 2022. In March 2023, the Commonwealth Games Federation Court found her guilty of anti-doping violations.
She accepted the decision in a Case Resolution Agreement, with the sanction backdated to 3 August 2022 and expiring on 2 August 2025.
An emotional Grace Nwokocha. Photo Credit: X
As a result, Nigeria was stripped of the relay gold medal, with England promoted to first place, Jamaica to second, and Australia to third.
READ MORE:behaving-badly-italian-football-legend-di-canio-slams-lookman-in-atalanta-row
The ban forced Nwokocha to miss several high-profile competitions, including the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the 2024 African Senior Championships, the 2023 African Games, the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the upcoming 2025 World Championships in Tokyo
Her earliest opportunity to compete at a major event will come at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
Before her suspension, Nwokocha was considered one of Nigeria’s brightest sprint prospects.
Grace Nwokocha. Photo Credit: X
She won bronze at the 2019 African Junior Championships, claimed double sprint gold at the National Sports Festival in Edo State in 2021, and reached the semi-finals of both the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the Oregon 2022 World Championships.
She is ranked sixth on Nigeria’s all-time list in the women’s 100m with a personal best of 10.97 seconds and seventh in the 200m with 22.44 seconds.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ATHLETIC NG WHATSAPP CHANNEL
In January 2022, she joined North Carolina A&T University in the United States and was named the school’s Women’s Track Athlete of the Year later that season.
