Former Nigerian hammer thrower Annette Echikunwoke clinched a silver medal for the United States of America in the women’s hammer throw on Tuesday, August 6.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
The 28-year-old, who was making her debut at the Olympic Games, threw 75.48 meters to finish second place behind Canada’s Camryn Rodgers, who won gold with a throw of 76.79 meters. China’s Jie Zhao came third with a throw of 74.27m.
Annette Echikunwoke was initially set to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Olympics but was disqualified along with nine other athletes after failing to undergo mandatory tests due to an error by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
She later changed her allegiance to the United States to compete at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympic.
According to a report by The PUNCH, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) in 2021 disclosed that many of the US-based athletes, including Echikunwoke, failed to disclose their whereabouts as requested for doping tests to be carried out.
Echikunwoke in an interview with The PUNCH blamed the AFN for being negligent, which she believed led to her disqualification from the Tokyo Olympics.
“That’s an absolute lie. Any time I was asked to disclose my whereabouts information, I gave it as soon as possible. I have the receipts. It’s the federation’s job to then set up testing once I give that information, and they never did.
“I gave my whereabouts about six or more times, and nothing came out of it. Even when they were asking for my address, they didn’t tell me the reason why; they would just say it’s ‘urgent’ and that I needed to do testing, but never explain the full situation or the severity of the situation,” Echikunwoke told The PUNCH.
