Wada chief ‘bitterly disappointed’ as deadline missed

Montreal: The president of the World AntiDoping Agency is “bitterly disappointed” after it was confirmed Russia’s anti-doping agency missed the deadline to hand over data from its Moscow laboratory.

Russia was set a 31 December deadline to comply, but Wada’s inspection team were denied full access to samples.

The country could now be at risk of another ban from international events after a statesponsored doping scandal.

Wada says it will refer the issue to its compliance review committee.

The independent body will next meet on 14 January in Canada, after which it will make a recommendation to Wada’s executive committee (ExCo).

United States Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart said the episode was “a total joke and an embarrassment for Wada”. He urged Wada to “stop being played by the Russians”, and said and the Russian AntiDoping Agency (Rusada) should be declared non-compliant.

The UK Anti-Doping Athlete Commission also demanded Russia’s immediate suspension by Wada.

But International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach seemed to suggest Russia was not in danger of being suspended for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

He said: “With its suspension from the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018, the Russian Olympic Committee has served its sanction, while in other organisations procedures are still ongoing.”

Wada president Sir Craig Reedie said: “I am bitterly disappointed that data extraction from the former Moscow laboratory has not been completed by the date agreed. “Since then, Wada has been working diligently with the Russian authorities to meet the deadline, which was clearly in the best interest of clean sport.

“The process agreed by Wada’s ExCo in September will now be initiated.”

In September, Wada controversially lifted its suspension of Rusada - which was imposed in November 2015 - pending the meeting of conditions in a “roadmap to compliance”.

One of the conditions was to allow independent access to the raw data held at the Moscow lab, and in November, Reedie had said it was “very hard to believe” Russian authorities “won’t deliver”.

But Wada said on 21 December it had been unable to “complete its mission”.

The state-sponsored use of performanceenhancing drugs by Russians in Olympic and Paralympic sports emerged in independent reports in November 2015, and July and December 2016.