Russia is on course to have its presence and participation in international sport severely curtailed for four years, after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) leaders today endorsed the recommendations of the Agency’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC).
The sanctions stop short of a blanket ban on Russian athletes.
However, they appear to place a question-mark over the participation of Russian teams in high-profile sporting competitions such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The decision, after a meeting thought to have lasted an hour or so here, was unanimous.
As such, it provides a much-needed boost to WADA’s authority and does much to vindicate President Sir Craig Reedie’s handling of a difficult and politically explosive dossier in his final month in the post before handing over to Poland’s Witold Bańka.
WADA vice president Linda Helleland said that, though she voted in favour of the CRC recommendation, she would have preferred to support a blanket ban.
“Unfortunately, at the [WADA Executive Committee] meeting in the Seychelles [in September 2018]…the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was made compliant without having delivered the data from their lab,” Helleland sa
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