Promising Nigerian athlete Imaobong Nse Uko has been handed a two-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after a doping violation, Bold Sports can confirm.
According to the latest list of sanctions published by the AIU, the 21-year-old 400m specialist was sanctioned for an anti-doping violation on June 5, 2024. Her ban will run until July 23, 2026, and all results from the date of the infraction have been officially disqualified.
Uko rose to the limelight at the 2021 U-20 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, winning three gold medals in the women’s 400m, women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m. Her early success on the junior circuit had positioned her as a key figure for Nigeria’s future in the women’s 400m and 4x400m relay teams.
The ban marks another difficult chapter for Nigerian athletics, which has been battling a series of doping violations involving elite athletes in recent years. Imaobong Nse Uko now joins a growing list of Nigerian athletes sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations, raising further concerns about the country’s testing and monitoring system.
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As of press time, AIU had yet to make public the offence that got Uko the doping ban.
This development comes just months before the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
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