CAS yet to register AIU’s appeal against Amusan less than four months to African Games

With less than two months to the end of the year 2023 and four months to the African Games in Ghana, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is yet to register the appeal filed by the Athletics Intergrity Unit, AIU, against the decision rendered by the Independent Tribunal dated August 17, 2023 in which Nigeria’s World 100m hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusan was found not to have committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (Three Whereabouts Failures).
In AIU’s appeal to the CAS, the body requests that the decision of the Independent Tribunal be set aside.

The CAS arbitration proceedings have thus not commenced. In line with CAS procedures on appeals filed, the parties (AIU and Amusan) are not exchanging written submissions yet and the Panel of arbitrators that will decide the matter can only be constituted once the appeal has been registered.

Once the appeal is registered and the panel constituted, the Panel will issue procedural directions for the next phase of the procedure, including the
holding of a hearing.

Following the hearing, the Panel will deliberate and issue an Arbitral Award containing its decision and the grounds for it.

The CAS Panel’s decision will be final and binding, with the exception of the parties’ right to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days
on limited grounds.

With the African Games coming up in March and the Olympics in August, athletics observers are hoping what happened to the Nigerian at the World Athletics

Championships in Budapest last August is not repeated.

Amusan was cleared on the eve of the Championships and the 26 year old could not overcome the emotional trauma she went through before she was declared a
clean athlete.

The Nigerian will be seeking to defend her 100m hurdles title for the second time at the African Games in Ghana and improve on her 12.68 Games record.
She will also be seeking to become the first Nigerian to win a World outdoor title and the Olympic Games title when she makes her third appearance at the
quadrennial Games.

Chioma Ajunwa was denied that opportunity by injury after jumping 7.01m to lead the qualifiers at the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece,
just a year after she made history as the first and, so far, only Nigerian to win an individual Olympic title with her feat in the long jump at Atlanta
Games.