F-22Raptor
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2014
- Messages
- 16,980
- Reaction score
- 3
- Country
- Location
The head of Russia's anti-doping agency has braced the nation to be banned from next year's Olympics as a fresh investigation into inconsistencies in laboratory data nears its conclusion.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has already warned Russia it faces reinstated sanctions over apparently deleted positive drug tests sent to the global agency in January. The process is likely to eventually trigger blanket expulsions that would freeze the nation out of Tokyo 2020 and the football World Cup in 2022.
This week a Wada committee meeting with experts that could have led to fresh sanctions was delayed, but Russia appears resigned to its fate.
Yuri Ganus, director of the Moscow-based agency Rusada, told reporters: "Russia's Olympic squad will be prevented from participating fully in the Games in Tokyo. I think that this will also happen at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China... Russia cannot continue any more with its old methods which have made the doping crisis worse. We need to get rid of the idea that the West is trying to put pressure on us. Russia needs to put its own house in order."
On Monday, Wada formally warned Russia it is "robustly" investigating "inconsistencies" in data finally handed over in January to escape a previous drug cheat ban.
In rare acknowledgement of concern at the Kremlin, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of Russia's Olympic Committee, said the situation was "very serious".
"We have spent vast diplomatic efforts to regain the trust of the international sports community and for Russian athletes to have the right to take part in Olympics without any restrictions," Pozdnyakov said in a statement. "But now we again run the risk of facing sanctions for reasons with which we have nothing to do."
Wada's Executive Committee confirmed last month it had received a report from its Compliance Review Committee updating it on the analysis of a huge handover of data from Moscow.
"The ExCO was informed that further investigation … of inconsistencies in Moscow Laboratory data … had led Wada to open a formal compliance procedure against Rusada on 17 September 2019," the agency said in a statement.
Subject to a likely battle at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, the nation could be banned globally from every sport that signs up to Wada's code.
Moscow's agreement to allow investigators into its laboratories was a key requirement for the reinstatement of Rusada as compliant earlier this year, but Wada drew criticism for extending its own deadline to allow the Russians to comply.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) put restrictions on Russia's participation at the last two Olympic Games. Russia was barred from the Pyongchang Winter Games last year as punishment for alleged state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. However, some Russians with no history of doping were cleared to compete as neutrals.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympic...yo-2020-ban-fresh-doping-investigation-nears/
The World Anti-Doping Agency has already warned Russia it faces reinstated sanctions over apparently deleted positive drug tests sent to the global agency in January. The process is likely to eventually trigger blanket expulsions that would freeze the nation out of Tokyo 2020 and the football World Cup in 2022.
This week a Wada committee meeting with experts that could have led to fresh sanctions was delayed, but Russia appears resigned to its fate.
Yuri Ganus, director of the Moscow-based agency Rusada, told reporters: "Russia's Olympic squad will be prevented from participating fully in the Games in Tokyo. I think that this will also happen at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in China... Russia cannot continue any more with its old methods which have made the doping crisis worse. We need to get rid of the idea that the West is trying to put pressure on us. Russia needs to put its own house in order."
On Monday, Wada formally warned Russia it is "robustly" investigating "inconsistencies" in data finally handed over in January to escape a previous drug cheat ban.
In rare acknowledgement of concern at the Kremlin, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of Russia's Olympic Committee, said the situation was "very serious".
"We have spent vast diplomatic efforts to regain the trust of the international sports community and for Russian athletes to have the right to take part in Olympics without any restrictions," Pozdnyakov said in a statement. "But now we again run the risk of facing sanctions for reasons with which we have nothing to do."
Wada's Executive Committee confirmed last month it had received a report from its Compliance Review Committee updating it on the analysis of a huge handover of data from Moscow.
"The ExCO was informed that further investigation … of inconsistencies in Moscow Laboratory data … had led Wada to open a formal compliance procedure against Rusada on 17 September 2019," the agency said in a statement.
Subject to a likely battle at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, the nation could be banned globally from every sport that signs up to Wada's code.
Moscow's agreement to allow investigators into its laboratories was a key requirement for the reinstatement of Rusada as compliant earlier this year, but Wada drew criticism for extending its own deadline to allow the Russians to comply.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) put restrictions on Russia's participation at the last two Olympic Games. Russia was barred from the Pyongchang Winter Games last year as punishment for alleged state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. However, some Russians with no history of doping were cleared to compete as neutrals.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympic...yo-2020-ban-fresh-doping-investigation-nears/
