Sir Craig Reedie to continue in WADA presidential role
Last Updated: 20/11/16 11:41am
Sir Craig Reedie has been confirmed as WADA President for a second three-year term.
The 75-year-old was determined to continue as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency despite being caught in the middle of bitter row between the Olympic movement and the anti-doping community.
Reedie was re-elected unopposed, having received the International Olympic Committee's backing earlier this month - an apparent vote of confidence in the former IOC vice-president's abilities from the organisation that provides half of WADA's £24m annual budget.
At a meeting of Olympic nations in Doha last week, WADA President Sir Craig Reedie came under sustained criticism from officials critical of WADA's recommendation that Russia be banned from the Games.
The issue has opened a rift between those responsible for catching the cheats and sports organisations which have to both promote and police their own events.
IOC president Thomas Bach claimed in Doha that the organisation's decision not to ban all Russian athletes was 'not political but in the interests of clean athletes'.
Reedie said: "It makes no sense to walk away now. The situation needs to be resolved and it will be resolved.
"I took this on expecting to serve two terms. OK, nobody imagined we would be spending two years dealing with Russia but that is where we are at.
"It might not look like it but we are making real progress now. I am not walking away."
Evidence of Russia's cheating came to light in two WADA-sponsored reports, the first published in November 2015 and the second in July, three weeks before the start of the Rio Games. The latter, written by Canadian legal expert Richard McLaren, was an interim version with the final take coming next month.
