Sports: How drinking “Zobo” can make you test positive to drugs

If you are a sportsman or woman and you are addicted to the local drink, “zobo”, you would test positive to drugs when tested by the anti doping officials. This is not a fact but an inference drawn from the statement of Andrew Ekanem, Treasurer of Nigeria Weightlifting Coaches Association.

He has just revealed that Chika Amalaha, who was stripped of her gold medal after testing positive to a banned substance at the just concluded Commonwealth Games, got the banned substance in her system because she was fond of drinking the “zobo”.

When tested at the tournament, “A” and “B” samples obtained from the 16 year old Amalaha, who won the women’s 53kg competition, was found to contain prohibited diuretics and masking agents.

Speaking on Brila FM yesterday, Ekanem said that Amalaha had been warned several times against drinking ‘Zobo’, but she always defied the warnings as she would always sneak out of camp to take the “delicious” drink while they were at the Abuja camp.

PM News also quoted him, as saying that, “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 medal winner in Glasgow, 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. But that record is now gone.