WADA rules Russia ‘non-compliant’ in Winter Games blow

SEOUL: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Thursday that Russia remains “non-compliant” with its Code, dealing a major blow to its hopes of being cleared to compete at February’s Winter Olympics.
Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) has been suspended since a 2015 WADA report found evidence of state-sponsored doping and accused it of systematically violating anti-doping regulations.
WADA set out a roadmap for Russia to regain its status but at a meeting of its Foundation Board here on Thursday decided that key criteria had not been met.WADA President Craig Reedie said the Board approved the recommendation by the Independent Compliance Review Committee that RUSADA remain non-compliant as two key requirements for reinstatement had still not been fulfilled.
“Having set a road map for compliance, there are two issues that have to be fulfilled and we can’t walk away from the commitments,” Reedie told reporters, adding that the RUSADA has made improvements.
Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius had also been found non-compliant by the Board, it added.The decision is likely to add more pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Games.
The Kremlin slammed WADA’s decision as unfair, insisting Russia did not have a state-sponsored doping programme.“We do not agree with such a decision,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“We consider it unfair and we have denied and categorically deny accusations that the use of doping had state support.”Yuri Ganus, director general of RUSADA, said the agency had done everything it could to be reinstated apart from two criteria that had not been met and were out of its control.
“We fulfilled all the criteria that depended on us,” Ganus told a news conference in Moscow.“There were two points that were beyond our prerogatives. Unfortunately they were not fulfilled.”