Wada opens the way for Russia’s return
Anti-doping body set to lift sanctions next week ‘It stinks to high heaven,’ says Usada chief Tygart
The World Anti-doping Agency sparked outrage across the sporting world last night after clearing the way to drop sanctions against Russia over its state-sponsored drugs programme.
Russia is set for a dramatic return to the international fold after apparently owning up to cheating and agreeing to allow international access to the Moscow laboratory at the centre of the scandal.
Senior anti-doping chiefs said the decision “stinks to high heaven” as investigators recommended Rusada, the state agency that allegedly helped 1,000 athletes cheat, should be reinstated.
A Wada executive board meeting in the Seychelles on Thursday is now all but certain to give the allclear to Russia three years after doping was first exposed in the country.
British athletes have already said it would be “a catastrophe for clean sport” were Russia given the green light. Last night Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-doping Agency, told Telegraph Sport: “Frankly, it stinks to high heaven.
“Wada should stop the sleight of hand and release the new recommendation as well as any information received from Russia now proving they are compliant. If they are compliant then great, we will get access to all the data and samples at the Moscow laboratory.”
Kelly Sotherton, who received an Olympic bronze only this week after being cheated out of a medal by Russia at the Beijing Games in 2008, expressed anger. “Would be nice if Rusada also could apologise for the inconvenience caused to quite a few people,” she said.
The decision follows 24 hours after a report claimed the probe had ruled the Russian ban should be upheld. The dramatic U-turn comes after Russia refused for months to budge on the last two items of a “road map to compliance” that Wada set out for Rusada last year.
Rusada and its athletics federation were suspended in November 2015 but the scandal widened when a second investigation in 2016 revealed that the conspiracy to cheat covered more than 1,000 athletes in 30 sports, and was directed from the Russian sports ministry.
That ultimately led to Russia having to send a neutral team to this year’s Winter Games but work was already under way to rehabilitate Rusada via a checklist of criteria, the so-called road map, which would be assessed by Wada’s compliance review committee (CRC).
Until Thursday, Russia had failed to meet the last two criteria: public acceptance of the 2016 report and unfettered access to the Moscow laboratory’s stored anti-doping samples and computer data.
In a statement yesterday, Wada said the CRC had reviewed a new letter from the Russian sports ministry that “sufficiently acknowledged the issues identified in Russia, therefore fulfilling the first of the two outstanding criteria”.
Wada said: “The CRC accepted that the new commitment to provide access in the Moscow laboratory to Wada via an independent expert would be sufficient to justify reinstatement, provided that the Exco imposes a clear time line.”