WADA Chief Praises Progress Reached With RUSADA On Russia's Doping Problem Solving

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Craig Reedie praised on Tuesday the progress that it had achieved with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in resolving Russia's doping problem, emphasizing that the finishing line had not been reached yet, and that WADA would now proceed to authentication of data it had retrieved from the Moscow laboratory

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2019) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Craig Reedie praised on Tuesday the progress that it had achieved with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in resolving Russia's doping problem, emphasizing that the finishing line had not been reached yet, and that WADA would now proceed to authentication of data it had retrieved from the Moscow laboratory.

On Tuesday, the WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) said that RUSADA had to continue complying with the terms that the committee outlined back in September in order to maintain its status of a country complying with the World Anti-Doping Code.

"Today, the ExCo was pleased to hear of the significant progress that has been made in resolving the Russian doping matter since its decision in September last year to reinstate RUSADA under strict conditions. Collecting the all-important data is a critical step, and it was not easy to achieve. We are not yet at the finishing line and there is a lot more to do ... We are now proceeding to the second phase of that decision, namely authenticating the data retrieved from the former Moscow Laboratory so that ultimately we can use them to catch more athletes who cheated and to exonerate others," Reedie said as quoted on WADA website.

He voiced belief that the mission was "in the best interests of clean sport and of athletes worldwide."

The second phase may take from two to three months, according to the ExCo.

On September 20, 2018, the ExCo voted to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code following a doping scandal. The agency required Russia to provide access to the data and samples of Moscow anti-doping laboratory by December 31, 2018.

However, the deadline was missed, which led to several Western countries calling on WADA to declare RUSADA non-complaint with the World Anti-Doping Code.

The parties have later agreed on a new attempt to gather the data. On January 17, WADA reported that its experts had successfully completed the work on copying the database of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.