On Friday, the World Anti Doping Authority stated in a press release that progress towards meeting the full conditions for the Russian Anti Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) reinstatement to WADA had hit a roadblock. Back in September, WADA’s Executive Committee voted to readmit Russia as a compliant nation with the stipulation that certain conditions were to be met by a hard deadline of Dec. 31.
At issue is WADA’s access to the Moscow Lab’s Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) data. Early reports by WADA had cited progress towards successfully meeting the Dec. 31 deadline. The Friday press release states Russia halted the data extraction due to an assertion that WADA’s equipment was not certified under Russian law.
WADA claims Russian authorities had not cited any issues with the equipment in question when the two parties met in Moscow to discuss lab and data access in late November. Full unhindered access to the lab, LIMS information, and any other underlying data are conditions for RUSADA to remain a compliant anti-doping entity.
Despite the lack of full access to the LIMS, WADA stated it will continue to honor the Dec. 31 deadline. With nine days remaining until Dec. 31, WADA representatives will proceed with writing and and submitting a report about its Moscow findings to WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to be delivered in mid-January.
If the Dec. 31 conditions are left unmet, RUSADA is at risk of once again becoming a non-compliant anti-doping agency.
Jason Albert
Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.
