45-year-old Nigerian Athlete Bags 18-month Ban

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has slammed an 18-month ban on 45-year-old Nigeria’s Paralympic Powerlifting and Commonwealth champion, Roland Ezuruike.

Ezuruike, a Rio 2016 Paralympic gold medalist earned the wrath of the IPC for anti-doping violation.

He broke the Paralympic record in the men’s under-54 kilograms category at Rio 2016 when he lifted 200kg on his way to claiming gold.

According to a statement by the IPC, Ezuruike was found to have made two filing failures and missed a test between April 12, 2019 and March 9, 2020.

The IPC Anti-Doping Code rules state that “any combination of three missed tests and/or filing failures within a 12-month period” by an athlete in a registered testing pool shall be considered an anti-doping violation.

The Paralympic record holder is part of the IPC’s registered testing pool, which is a selected group of athletes that are required to make whereabouts filings in order to be located for out of competition testing.

It was agreed by the IPC that Ezuruike would receive an 18-month suspension, making him ineligibility to compete from August 17, 2020 to February 16, 2022.

“This represents the first sanction related to a whereabouts violation by the IPC,” a statement from the IPC read.

“The IPC reminds all athletes in their registered testing pool to remain vigilant when it comes to filing and updating their whereabouts.”