Josephine Onyia Nnkiruka (born 15 July 1986 in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

) is a

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n-born Spanish

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who specializes in the

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten Hurdling, hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first h ...

. She represented Spain at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. She changed nationality from Nigeria to Spain in April 2007, following in the footsteps of another hurdler

Glory Alozie Gloria “Glory” Alozie Oluchi (born 30 December 1977 in Amator, Abia State) is a Nigerian-born Spanish track and field athlete competing mostly in hurdling. The world junior second placer from 1996, she went on to have a successful senior c ...

. Her first medal as a Spaniard came at the

2007 IAAF World Athletics Final The 5th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart, Germany on September 22 and September 23, 2007. Results Men Women See also *2007 in athletics (track and field) References ;Results2007 IAAF World ...

, where she took the hurdles

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

. She started the following season with a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the

2008 European Athletics Indoor Cup The 2008 European Athletics Indoor Cup was held on 16 February 2008 at the CSKA Universal Sports Hall in Moscow, Russia. It was the fourth and final edition of the indoor track and field meeting for international teams, which featured the six top ...

, but tripped at the last hurdle at the

2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Luis Puig Palace in Valencia, Spain, March 7–9, 2008. Bid Valencia was announced the winning bidder by the IAAF on November 13, 2005 at an IAAF Council meeting in Moscow, R ...

and finished in last place. Onyia set a Spanish national record at the 2008 IAAF Golden League meet in ISTAF Berlin meeting, recording 12.50 seconds and improving upon her previous best by 14 hundredths of a second. She competed in the hurdles at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

and just missed the final after finishing fifth in the semi-finals. In 2016, she was disqualified from the 2008 Olympics for doping, and her result was annulled after her 2008 sample was re-tested and failed. She was the gold medalist at the

2008 IAAF World Athletics Final The 6th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany on September 13 and September 14, 2008. A number of road races also took place on the second day of competition. There were seven different starting po ...

later that season. However, she tested positive for

methylhexaneamine Methylhexanamine (also known as methylhexamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 1,3-DMAA, dimethylamylamine, and DMAA; trade names Forthane and Geranamine) is an indirect sympathomimetic drug invented and developed by Eli Lilly and Company and marketed as ...

at the 2008

Athletissima Athletissima is an annual athletics meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Diamond League. The first edition was held on 8 July 1977 in the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. In ...

meeting and also clenbuterol at the World Athletics Final.

Real Federación Española de Atletismo The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (Spanish: ''Real Federación Española de Atletismo'', RFEA), is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Spain. As of 2020, the federation has 1,411 registered clubs and 89,470 federated athlets. His ...

, the Spanish athletics body, decided not to sanction the athlete as she had tested negative twice around the time of the positive clenbuterol test. However, the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

intervened and took the case to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

(CAS). The CAS upheld the IAAF's appeal and Onyia was suspended for two years and her recent past results were annulled, effectively removing her of all her achievements as a senior athlete. The two separate positive tests were treated as one single breach of the doping rules as she had not been informed of the first until after the second positive test. She received a two-year competitive ban, set to expire on 10 November 2010. She returned to competition in January 2011, taking an indoor win in Zaragoza. She received a further doping suspension of two years after a failed test for

dimethylpentylamine Methylhexanamine (also known as methylhexamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 1,3-DMAA, dimethylamylamine, and DMAA; trade names Forthane and Geranamine) is an indirect sympathomimetic drug invented and developed by Eli Lilly and Company and marketed a ...

in July 2011. In August 2015 it was reported that Onyia had tested positive for anabolic steroids at the Spanish athletics championships and that she was pulled from the

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

and subsequently received a lifetime ban.Flash-News des Tages leichtathletik.de 28. January 2016

Achievements

References

External links

* __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Onyia, Josephine Living people 1986 births Sportspeople from Lagos Nigerian female hurdlers Spanish female hurdlers Olympic athletes of Spain Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Doping cases in athletics Nigerian sportspeople in doping cases Spanish sportspeople in doping cases Nigerian emigrants to Spain Naturalised citizens of Spain Spanish sportspeople of African descent Spanish people of Nigerian descent Sportspeople of Nigerian descent