WADA/RUSADA NEWS

VICTORIA (SEY): The World Anti-Doping Agency Executive Committee has voted 9-2 (with one abstention) in favour of reinstating the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). “Today, the great majority of WADA’s Executive Committee decided to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the Code subject to strict conditions, upon recommendation by the Agency’s independent Compliance Review Committee and in accordance with an agreed process,” said WADA president Sir Craig Reedie after the meeting in Victoria, Seychelles. The news means that Russia is free again to test its own athletes again and issue therapeutic use exemption certificates. Russia will also be allowed to bid for international sporting events again.

VICTORIA (SEY): Sir Craig Reedie has said RUSADA could be declared non-compliant again if they do not follow a “clear timeline” on access to the samples and data at the Moscow Laboratory, informs insidethegames.biz. WADA has given Russia until 31 December to hand over data and samples from the Moscow Laboratory, and the Russian authorities must ensure re-analysis of “any samples as required by WADA” by 30 June 2019. “If Russian authorities do not deliver on what has been agreed or if RUSADA does not maintain the high operational standard it has now reached, then it will fall back into non-compliance once again,” said WADA director general Olivier Niggli.

MONACO (MON): The IAAF in its statement stressed that its Independent Taskforce, chaired by Rune Andersen will review the decision made by WADA and the conditions set by WADA over the next few weeks and check RusAF progress on other criteria still outstanding. The taskforce will then compile their report with a recommendation and present this to the IAAF Council at the beginning of December. It is then for Council to discuss and decide any actions. The reinstatement of RUSADA was one of three pre-conditions set out in the IAAF Taskforce’s recommendations to the July council meeting. The other two pre-conditions agreed by the council are: The Russian authorities must acknowledge the findings of the McLaren and Schmid Commissions that Ministry of Sport officials were implicated in the scheme to cover up the doping of Russian athletes as described in their reports; and The Russian authorities must provide access to the data from testing of samples at the Moscow lab from 2011 to 2015, so that the Athletics Integrity Unit can determine whether the suspicious findings reported in the Moscow lab’s LIMS database should be pursued.

MOSCOW (RUS): President of the All-Russia Athletics Federation Dmitry Shlyakhtin is optimistic the IAAF will soon lift the three-year ban on the federation after WADA’s decision to reinstate RUSADA, informs sports.ru. “It’s good that one of the key requirements of the road map for the restoration of VFLA has been fulfilled,” he said.

MOSCOW (RUS): Yury Ganus, chief executive of RUSADA and who has earned international praise for helping make the anti-doping body a more efficient and professional organisation, also hailed the reinstatement. “The decision by the WADA Executive Committee is the result of major efforts which were aimed at making the agency compliant,” he told TASS. “The significance of today’s decision cannot be overstated, because the reinstatement of the Russian Paralympic Committee and Russian Athletics Federation fully depends on RUSADA’s status.” Writes insidethegames.

DARMSTADT (GER): President of the German Athletics Federation (DLV) Jurgen Kessing has said he can “in no way understand” the decision to reinstate RUSADA and describes the decision as a “slap in the face.”

COLORADO SPRINGS (USA): US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygert has described the decision to reinstate WADA as “a devastating blow.”

VICTORIA (SEY): Vice President of WADA Linda Helleland has issued a strong rebuke to the organisation’s decision to reinstate RUSADA. “I am very disappointed on behalf of the clean athletes and everyone who believes in clean sport. This casts a dark shadow over the credibility of the anti-doping movement. It was therefore wrong to welcome RUSADA back until they had fully and transparently met the roadmap,” she said.