Russia doping agency remains banned

Russia's participation at the 2018 Winter Olympics remains under a cloud after its anti-doping agency RUSADA was ruled to be not compliant with the WADA code.

Russia's anti-doping agency remains suspended as it is still not compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code following a doping scandal in the country.

After a meeting in Seoul on Thursday, WADA said its foundation board approved a recommendation by a review committee that RUSADA remained non-compliant.

The announcement could harm Russian hopes of avoiding a blanket ban from February's Winter Olympics in South Korea.

RUSADA has been suspended since 2015 over a state-sponsored doping program after WADA's independent investigator Richard McLaren revealed the manipulation of samples at the home Sochi Games in 2014.

The WADA review committee said Russia failed to fulfil two reinstatement criteria, namely the public recognition of McLaren on systematic doping and lack of access to the doping test samples of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.

Russia has continually denied the existence of an institutional doping program and claims the laboratory samples are unavailable due to an ongoing investigation in the country.

RUSADA had previously promised to follow international recommendations to get the suspension lifted and sports minister Pavel Kolobkov and Alexander Zhukov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, addressed the meeting on other reforms carried out.

"The Board was encouraged by the significant progress achieved by RUSADA under its new management with the support of WADA," WADA chairman Craig Reedie said.

"However, there was clear consensus by the Board that the two outstanding Roadmap criteria were critical to global confidence and to operating in a credible environment."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide on Russian participation in the Winter Games at its next board meeting from December 5-7.

The IOC decided againsta complete ban on Russian athletes at the 2016 summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"No one expected any other decision, it had been announced by the commissions and well-informed media outlets," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko told the state agency TASS.

"They have no new decisions for us," said Mutko, who claimed the RUSADA suspension and Russian participation in Pyeongchang "are two different matters that are not linked to each other."

Alexander Ivlev, chairman of the RUSADA supervisory board, meanwhile called "to continue dialogue and search for a solution, even if this seems to be impossible sometimes."

Apart from Russia, the WADA board also declared Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait and Mauritius to be non-compliant and approved an 8 per cent increase to the WADA budget for 2018.


Share
3 min read
Published 17 November 2017 4:34am
Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends