Teenage girl fails doping test at Commonwealth Games

A 16-year-old Nigerian weightlifter has failed her initial drug test at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and could become one of the youngest athletes ever caught doping at an international event.

Chika Amalaha had set an altogether different mark Friday when she won the 117-pound division and became the youngest female weightlifter to earn Commonwealth gold.

But a subsequent test detected traces of amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic and masking agent which can help lifters gain an advantage by losing weight and competing against smaller opponents.

After officials provisionally suspended Amalaha from the Games, she requested that her backup “B” sample be tested at a London laboratory on Wednesday.

If the second sample comes back positive, she will be stripped of her medal.

“I am rather saddened and disappointed this has happened to a 16-year-old,” Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told the Associated Press. “WADA will look at the circumstances surrounding this case once we know the full facts.”