J’can World Indoor medallist in hot water over Okagbare doping case

NEW YORK (AP)

WORLD INDOOR silver medallist, Dewayne Barrett is in hot water over the doping case that saw Nigerian Blessing Okagbare banned for 11 years.

Federal prosecutors charged Barrett, along with O’Neil Wright, another former elite athlete, as part of a widening case alleging a conspiracy to supply banned performance-enhancing drugs for athletes in advance of the Tokyo Olympics.

An indictment unsealed Thursday in the Southern District of New York charges Wright and Barrett with working to provide sprinters from Nigeria, Switzerland and Britain with drugs to get them ready for the Tokyo Games.

The indictment says Wright and Barrett worked with Eric Lira, who has already pleaded guilty under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which was passed in 2020 to target wide-ranging doping schemes across the globe.

One of the athletes Lira worked with was Okagbare, a 2008 Olympic silver medallist, whose 11-year ban was handed down for taking human-growth hormone and the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) and also for failing to cooperate with the investigation.

EPO and HgH were among the drugs Barrett and Wright were discussing with Lira, labelled as “Co-conspirator 1” (CC-1) in the indictment.

“Prices. CC-1 responded via text message: ‘100 million stem cells at $1900, Human Placent is $350, Hgh 12 mg $450,’” the indictment said, in recounting a text exchange between Barrett and Lira.

The indictment details an exchange with Okagbare, who is referred to as “Athlete 1,” in which Barrett asked: “How do you need us to help you and (another athlete) be gold medalist?” And, later: ”U need a coach that will lie for you.”

Wright was a 200 and 400-metre sprinter for Liberia who ran at the 2005 World Championships. Barrett won a silver medal for Jamaica in the 4x400 relay at the World Indoor Championships in 2008.

Neither Wright nor Barrett immediately returned messages left by The Associated Press via email and social media.