Wada is paying price for letting Russia off the hook too lightly

With sport’s Russia problem flaring up again, cast your mind back to the meeting in the Seychelles 12 months ago, where the World Anti-doping Agency lifted the ban on Vladimir Putin’s country, and its president, Sir Craig Reedie, promised a “clear timeline” and a “clear commitment” to resuspend Russia if it transgressed again.

That reprieve was enthusiastically received inside Russia’s state doping programme. When Wada officials finally gained access to the infamous Moscow lab where positive samples were dumped or tampered with, “deletions” and “discrepancies” appeared in data examined by international experts. In other words, given a chance to come clean, Russia is alleged to have seized its chance to play dirty all over again.

Nine of 12 Wada executives voted for Russia’s reinstatement this time last year, with Linda Helleland, the outgoing vicepresident, a dissenting voice. She told the BBC’S Dan Roan this week: “The reason I, along with Oceania, voted against Russia’s reinstatement back in September of last year was because we first wanted to assess all the data given, and then decide whether Russia should be rendered compliant or not. This process has already stripped the sports bodies of a lot of credibility.”

Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of Putinism knows that exploiting opposition weakness is automatic. Wada is now paying the price for rolling over like a kitten to be tickled.