It is with deep regret that we announce that effective immediately, Making of Champions (MoC) terminates any and all association with Para-Athlete Ifeanyi Christian. This is due to MoC’s strict internal protocols prohibiting the use of unknown and banned substances by our athletes, and notification he received from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) that a sample collected from him returned an Adverse Analytical Finding at the World Para-Athletics Grand Prix in Tunis on 19th March 2021.
The presence of prohibited substances detected in his sample constitute an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV), and the IPC invited him to respond to their findings by 3rd May 2021 to explain the presence of the banned substances in his sample.
Following our internal queries to Christian, he has admitted that he has been taking several substances without our knowledge, in complete disregard of our Club’s policies. All of our Athletes are aware that it is a serious violation of our Athlete Code of Conduct to take any substance without our knowledge even if they think it is not a banned substance.
Christian was recruited to the MoC Track Club in March 2019, as we felt that he was an extremely talented athlete and with our help, he would be a great Paralympic medal prospect for Nigeria. Sadly, Christian’s recent actions of taking substances unknown to MoC jeopardizes that dream. Although the IPC and World Athletics rules clearly state that it is each Athlete’s personal duty to ensure that no Prohibited Substance enters their body, actions like this unfortunately also adversely affects their club, coaches and teammates.
We would like to make it clear that MoC denounces all forms of dishonesty and cheating in sports. MoC fully supports the Worldwide Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), World Athletics and IPC in the fight to eradicate doping from Sports, and within Nigeria, and are fully compliant with all anti-doping measures overseen by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigerian Anti-Doping Committee (NADC) as follows:
- Our Top Athletes are already part of the World Athletics whereabouts system and have been tested regularly in and out of competitions, never having missed any tests.
- The MoC Grand Prix, including the 3rd edition held on 30th–31st March 2021, is anti-doping compliant. As the Event organizers, we arrange for anti-doping officials to be present to conduct in-competition testing to ensure that there is no doubt over the validity of performances at the event.
- We will continue to ensure that anti-doping control is present at all our competitions.
MoC is proud of its honest and hardworking Athletes and Coaches. The Club will continue to support them in their quest to return Nigeria to its glory days in Athletics, while standing firm on our strict anti-doping policies and our firm commitment to ensuring clean performances.
