Nigeria’s Oyesade Olatoye will be stripped of her Gold & Bronze medals from the African Games in Morocco following her non-clearance by IAAF’s Nationality Review Panel to switch allegiance, thereby annulling all her results.
Olatoye, who is the 2019 Ohio State Female Athlete of the Year, was born in USA in 1997, but opted to represent Nigeria in 2019.
According to Rule 5.2(a)(ii) of the IAAF Competition Rules, Olatoye was eligible to represent Nigeria in National Representative Competitions from 17 September 2019 but was at the African Games which was held from 26 to 30 August 2019.
At the African Games, her first-round attempt of 16.61m was good enough for the gold medal while she got bronze in the hammer throw, throwing a distance of 16.61m to secure her medal.
Olatoye later represented Nigeria at the recent IAAF World Championship in Doha last month where she crashed out at the semi-final stage of the women’s shot-put event.
If her appeal is not successful, Olatoye would have to cede her gold medal to Ischke Senekal of South Africa while another South African, Mieke Strydom will move up to the silver medal; Benin Republic’s Odile Ahouanwanou will take the bronze.
Zouina Bouzebra from Algeria will get Olatoye’s bronze medal at the Women’s hammer throw event.
Also Nigeria would no longer top the athletics medals table at the 2019 African Games. Kenya will take the top spot with Ten Gold, Seven Silver and Three Bronze medals dropping Nigeria to second position with Nine Gold, Six Silver and Six Bronze medals.