Remember the 16 year-old Chika Amala who made Nigeria proud as the youngest athletes to receive a medal at the Common Wealth games before she was stripped of her gold after testing positive to a banned substance.
Since the unfortunate incident, many have questioned why the young lady was using drugs, or what could have resulted to her testing positive for the said substance.
Explaining what went wrong, the Treasurer of Nigeria Weighlifting Coaches Association, Andrew Ekanem has revealed that Amalaha may have gotten the prohibited substance from her consistent drinking of a local drink called ‘Zobo’.
Ekanem made the revelation on Brila FM yesterday, saying that Amalaha had been warned several times against drinking ‘Zobo’, but all the entreaties fell on deaf ears.
The weightlifting coach alleged further that even the medical team warned her against drinking the local drink at the Abuja camp before the Games, but she always sneaked out of camp to have the drink.
According to the statement released by her coach he said: ‘‘It was unfortunate that Amalaha was stripped of the medal she won at the Commonwealth Games, I could recall that after she was warned against drinking ‘Zobo’ after the African Youth Games in Gaborone, Botswana last May where she won three gold medals, when we returned to Abuja for camping ahead of the Commonwealth Games, she still sneaked out to drink ‘Zobo’ again.’’
Amalaha was Nigeria’s first gold medalist in Glasgow winning the women’s 53kg competition and equaling the Games snatch record of 82kg with her first attempt before lifting 85kg on her third. According to the International Weightlifting Federation, she was the youngest woman to win a weightlifting title in the Games history.
