Earlier this year, Texan "therapist" Eric Lira became the first person to plead guilty under the act which carries the name of Grigory Rodchenkov, the Russian scientist who was obliged to become a whistleblower on the state-run doping programme.

Lira was found to have supplied performance enhancing drugs to two Olympic athletes preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - referred to in the initial complaint issued by the US Department of Justice in January 2022 as Athete-1 and Athlete-2.

The first of these was Oduduru’s 35-year-old Nigerian team-mate Blessing Okagbare, who earned long jump silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and 2013 World Championships, claiming 200 metres bronze also at the latter event.

Last year, Okagbare, who was provisionally suspended before she was due to compete in the women’s 100m semi-finals at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, received an accumulated 11-year ban for doping and non-cooperation with the investigation.

The AIU have also found "overwhelming evidence" of possession and attempted use of prohibited substances by Oduduru - Athlete-2.

The 27-year-old, who has a 100m best of 9.86sec and a 200m best of 19.73, was disqualified in the 100m heats at the Tokyo 2020 Games but reached the 200m semi-finals.

In addition to the ban – which included four years for two anti-doping rule violations and an additional two years for aggravating circumstances due to the athlete's attempted use of multiple prohibited substances - Oduduru, who was provisionally suspended on February 9 this year, must pay World Athletics $3,000 (£2,450/€2,800) towards their expenses.

Without RADA, Lira, who positioned himself as a doctor to athletes, would probably have escaped consequences because he did not fall under any sport anti-doping rules.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of this matter, given its particularly grievous nature, exposing the sinister collusion between athletes and other persons in deliberate plans to corrupt athletics at the highest level," said Brett Clothier, head of the AIU, in response to the decision.

Throughout the investigation, the 27-year-old Oduduru maintained his innocence, despite the AIU's assertion of significant evidence.

This included WhatsApp messages between Okagbare and Lira, which revealed Okagbare soliciting prohibited substances on Oduduru's behalf.

The three-member disciplinary panel commented: "To procure those substances, he engaged into a scheme with his teammate who in her turn was procuring those substances on his behalf from a person who was illegally bringing them to US in order to distribute among athletes with the aim to improve their sport performance, thus influencing unfairly the outcome of athletic competitions, including the major ones.

"The panel considers this behaviour to be particularly serious."

The AIU noted the discovery of photographic evidence of multiple prohibited substances in Oduduru's Florida apartment.

Among the substances found were two boxes of Somatropin (labelled as "Xerendip" and "Humatrope"), identified as human growth hormone, a plastic bag labelled "IGF LR3" (an abbreviation for synthetic Insulin Growth Factor) containing three vials, and two boxes of erythropoietin (EPO).

Also discovered in the apartment was an opened US Postal Service envelope containing “Xerendip” – addressed to Okagbare and with Lira labelled as the sender.

The Panel found it to be "an extraordinary coincidence that all the Prohibited Substances found in the Athlete’s apartment were precisely those requested from Mr. Lira by Ms. Okagbare for her and “Divine”, specifying that she had to give (to Divine) his stuff too and for which she tested positive (EPO and hGH)."

Given the Prohibited Substances found in Oduduru’s apartment, when and where they were found, and the fact that he had exclusive control of the apartment, the panel concluded that Oduduru was in constructive possession of the Prohibited Substances

Okagbare's phone had been examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection upon her return from Tokyo to her United States training base, revealing "highly incriminating text and voice messages" exchanged with Lira, according to an FBI complaint.

"The AIU is fully committed to unearthing cheats and the extent of their networks. In our quest to protect the integrity of athletics, we often work closely with other investigative organizations," Clothier added.

"We are grateful for the assistance from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and United States Department of Justice, whose legal reach provided vital evidence which helped in this matter, as well as in our case against Blessing Okagbare last year."

USADA described the latest sanction as another example of how the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act is "exposing networks of conspirators working against clean athletes".

In a statement, the USADA chief executive Travis Tygart commented:

"Justice is once again being served in international sport thanks to the scope of RADA and the commitment of principled organizations like the Athletics Integrity Unit to seek the truth."