World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended Russia’s anti-doping agency (RusADA) deeming it “non- compliant”. It has raised the possibility of Russian athletes being barred from the Olympics, if the country does not fall back into line with accepted international rules.
Wada’s foundation board unanimously passed a recommendation from a committee which found (RusADA) “non-compliant” with the global body’s charter. The decision has been anticipated following a damning report by a WADA independent panel which uncovered a “state-sponsored” doping program in Russia.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had already provisionally suspended Russia from international competition but left the door open to a return in time for the Olympics. This decision of WADA piled more pressure on Russia to fix its system.
Accusations by WADA on RusADA:
- The 325-page review by an independent commission chaired by Dick Pound, a former WADA president, uncovered a “deeply rooted culture of cheating” at all levels of Russian athletics.
- Report has recommended, Russia to be suspended from competition and barred from the Olympic Games in Rio next year unless it entirely overhauls its approach.
- Rusada has been heavily implicated in the scandal and accused of destroying samples requested for analysis by Wada.
- According to a damning report by WADA, Russia has operated a huge state sponsored doping programme that sabotaged the London 2012 Olympics and should be banned from athletics.
- Pound’s commission has found evidence of “interference with doping controls” as well as “cover ups, destruction of samples [and] payment of money to conceal doping tests”.
- The report recommended, five middle-distance runners and five coaches be given lifetime doping bans. Two of the athlete were the gold and bronze-medal winners in the 800 metres in 2012, the Olympic champion Mariya Savinova and the bronze medalist Ekaterina Poistogova.
Significance of WADA’s code of conduct
Under rules agreed by Wada and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), countries which are in full compliance with the anti-doping agency’s code can only participate in the Games like Olympics.
Russia has vowed to follow a roadmap laid down to overhaul its drug-testing program in order to avert the prospect of an Olympic ban. Wada President Craig Reedie has insisted the moves by agency to ensure “watertight” anti-doping regime in Russia.
The Russian sports ministry has said that, it had already taken steps to overhaul its athletics federation under a new president and coaches. “Russia has been and will continue to be fully committed to the fight against doping in sport,” it said.
Russian Athletics
Russia is a major player in world athletics, having finished second to the United States in the last indoor championships in Poland in 2014 and in the athletics competition at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Ban on Russian athletes from track and field category can result into drastic fall in total medal tally for Russia in Rio Olympics 2016.
