MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruled to keep in force the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) status of compliance with the Code, the global organization said in a statement on Tuesday.
The WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) held a conference call on January 22 and made the decision based on the recommendations provided by the agency’s Compliance and Review Committee (CRC).
"Today, the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided to continue applying the conditions outlined in its 20 September 2018 decision that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) must fulfill to maintain compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code (Code), after endorsing a recommendation of WADA’s independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) during an ExCo meeting held by conference call," the statement said.
According to the statement the CRC recommended the ExCo to take no further sanctions against RUSADA at the moment and the Executive Committee upheld the recommendation.
"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," WADA President Sir Craig Reedie was quoted as saying by the statement. "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 but undeniably we are much further along the track than we would have been without the September ExCo decision."
"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," the WADA president said. "We will not be deterred from this mission, which we firmly believe is in the best interests of clean sport and of athletes worldwide."
"Several members of the ExCo voiced their disappointment that the deadline had been missed but agreed that no sanction in that regard should be imposed. Above all, we want to ensure that those who cheated are held to account. That is what the September ExCo decision was all about, and I hope athletes and others see that we are making good progress in that regard," he added.
Last Thursday, the global anti-doping body announced that WADA experts had finished their mission to extract data on doping samples of Russian athletes from the Moscow Anti-Doping Lab adding that it was "a major breakthrough for clean sport."
According to the statement, the CRC, which met in Montreal on 14-15 January to consider RUSADA’s compliance status, received a full report on everything that happened since the September 20, 2018 decision of WADA’s ExCo to reinstate RUSADA.
The WADA Executive Committee reinstated the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on September 20 on condition that WADA experts would be granted access before December 31 to doping samples at the Moscow Anti-Doping Lab, which was sealed off in connection with a federal investigation.
In November and December 2018, WADA experts twice visited the Moscow laboratory but could not finish their work as their equipment was reportedly not certified under the Russian laws.
A delegation of WADA experts arrived again in the Russian capital on January 9 and on the following day began their mission to extract the data of Russian athletes’ doping samples for the period of 2011-2015 stored at the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory.