Russia, five countries declared non-compliant by WADA
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s Foundation Board has unanimously voted to declare the national anti-doping agency for Russia, Andorra, Israel, Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine non-compliant with its code.
Brazil, Belgium, France, Greece, Mexico and Spain were placed on a watch list by WADA, which means their anti-doping agencies must meet strict conditions by March 18, 2016 or be deemed non-compliant.
Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine were using non-accredited laboratories to test blood and urine samples. Andorra and Israel did not have the 2015 WADA code compliant rules in place.
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Paris is bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
WADA’s meeting in Colorado Springs comes just one week after former president Dick Pound released the findings of an Independent Committee’s review into performance enhancing doping in Russian sports and recommended that the IOC ban the country from international competition, while also banning five coaches and five athletes. The IAAF suspended Russia from international competition on Friday.
• Report: Kenyan runners paid bribes in doping scandal
Kenya and Jamaica, who topped the IAAF World Championship medal table this summer, were not placed on the list. Kenya is being investigated by the IAAF for alleged doping cover-ups since last March, WADA announced on Tuesday. Kenya may have avoided being placed on the watch list by immediately establishing an anti-doping agency after Russia’s suspension.
About 40 Kenyan athletes have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in the past two years. At the 2015 world championships, 400-meter sprinter Joyce Zakary and 400-meter hurdler Koki Manunga accepted suspensions for positive tests. The highest profile case in the last two years was Boston and Chicago Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo’s positive test for EPO just days before almost collecting $500,000 in prize money from the World Marathon Majors.
In August 2013, Renee Anne Shirley, the former executive director of Jamaica’s Anti-Doping Commission, reported that one out-of-competition test was done on Jamaican athletes between February 2012 and the start of the London Olympics five months later. The entire JADCO board resigned months later.
- Christopher Chavez
