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Doping scandal in Russian sports

WADA notes progress in studying data received from Moscow lab

The information obtained is crucial for supporting or refuting doping violation cases, launched following WADA-commissioned investigations

© EPA-EFE/Bartlomiej Zborowski

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has achieved certain progress in studying the data retrieved from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory in January, the watchdog’s press service said on Wednesday.

WADA experts have uploaded approximately 24 terabytes of information, forensically indexing it and pairing it to the various instruments, servers, hard drives, computers and other electronic equipment from the lab. They will now be able to start assessing the data in more detail to ensure it is complete and authentic. According to earlier reports, the process of analyzing the information may take between two and three months.

"This is a huge undertaking involving more than 1.5 million files, but we continue to make good progress. Essentially, what we have done is to re-create the Moscow Laboratory in a virtual sense, allowing us to pair the various data with their respective instruments so that we can ensure what we have is complete, accurate and has not been tampered with," said WADA Director of Intelligence and Investigations Gunter Younger, who is leading the process.

The information obtained is crucial for supporting or refuting doping violation cases, launched following WADA-commissioned investigations led by Richard Pound and Prof. Richard McLaren.

In 2015 WADA ruled that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and suspended the work of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory following the inquiry led by Richard Pound. The reinstatement was delayed several times due to new doping cases and another WADA inquiry led by Richard McLaren.

The WADA Executive Committee reinstated the compliance status of RUSADA on September 20, 2018 on condition that WADA experts would be granted access to the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory until December 31 and that all suspicious doping samples from the lab would be submitted for additional checks. The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruled in January to keep in force the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) status of compliance with the Code.

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