WADA KEEPS RUSSIA UNDER SUSPENSION

Montreal: The World AntiDoping Agency has maintained its suspension of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) over its failure to follow a roadmap necessary to regain compliant status, officials said. Speaking after WADA’s executive committee met behind closed doors ahead of a Foundation Board meeting on Thursday, director general Olivier Niggli said there had been no change in RUSADA’s status. “There was no need for a vote, nothing has changed,” Niggli said. Another executive committee member confirmed the suspension was still in force. “It’s still the status quo,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The decision to maintain RUSADA’s “non-compliant” status had been expected. RUSADA has been at the centre of a standoff between WADA and Russian authorities ever since the body’s suspension in November 2015 following revelations of a vast doping scandal involving Moscow’s main drug-testing laboratory. WADA had warned RUSADA will continue to be ruled noncompliant until Russia accepts the findings of its bombshell McLaren report, which uncovered a vast doping conspiracy spanning several years, and allows WADA inspectors into the Moscow testing laboratory. WADA has issued a roadmap detailing the path RUSADA must take to regain compliant status. The agency has already been allowed to resume doping controls under the supervision of WADA-appointed monitors.