WADA disappointed over failure to get Moscow lab data by deadline
Baku, January 4, AZERTAC
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Craig Reedie is disappointed over the organization’s failure to get the data of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory by the December 31 deadline, the WADA press office reported on its website on Tuesday, according to TASS.
On September 20, the WADA Executive Committee decided to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on condition that WADA would be granted access to the Moscow laboratory, sealed for a federal investigation, before the end of the year. WADA also expects Russia to provide all suspicious samples from the laboratory for retesting until June 30, 2019. If Russia fails to fulfill WADA’s conditions, RUSADA may be once again declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and Russian athletes may be stripped of the right to compete at the international level.
"I am bitterly disappointed that data extraction from the former Moscow Laboratory has not been completed by the date agreed by WADA’s ExCo in September 2018," Reedie was quoted by the WADA press office as saying.
The WADA delegation led by independent expert Dr. Jose Antonio (Toni) Pascual, which visited Moscow for accessing the data, will send the relevant report to the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) for consideration, the organization’s statement says.
"On 14-15 January 2019, the CRC will meet and review all available elements. The CRC will provide a recommendation to the WADA Executive Committee based on the applicable rules … and as soon as practicable thereafter, the CRC’s recommendation will be considered by the ExCo. If the CRC recommends non-compliance, and the ExCo agrees with it, RUSADA will have the right to challenge that assertion to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who will hear the case and take the final decision," the statement reads.
"WADA has now written to Russia’s Minister of Sport, Pavel Kolobkov, and the Director General of RUSADA, Yury Ganus, to officially notify them of the situation and to remind them of the next steps in the process," the document says.
"WADA experts continue to be ready to proceed with extraction of the data. WADA will update the CRC of any progress in this regard at the CRC 14-15 January 2019 meeting," the statement says.
"WADA also continues its work with RUSADA, including through the presence of a WADA-commissioned Independent International Expert at RUSADA’s headquarters, to ensure that proper anti-doping activities, in particular testing, are being carried out in Russia," the statement says.
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