WADA delay report on Moscow lab until team's return from Russia
Inspection team's cautious approach "not just out of safety concerns, [but] also to ensure there is no interference," says WADA director general
Wednesday 16 January 2019 07:36, UK
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has stated that its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) will not file a report until its team's mission to Moscow is complete.
WADA is in the Russian capital, with access to the Moscow lab and data a condition of their decision in September to provisionally reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency's (RUSADA).
But due to the threat of interference in the collection of doping data and safety concerns for their inspection team, they will wait until their team is out of the country before the report is made public.
The CRC has said it will submit a report on code compliance status to the executive committee by no later than Thursday.
"The CRC will not send us their report and recommendation until the team is out of Russia," said WADA director general Olivier Niggli.
"The only thing they [CRC] said was they don't want to send that until they have confirmation the mission is out of Russia.
"It is not just out of safety concerns, it is also to ensure that there is no interference with the mission in Russia.
"From what I hear, the mission is going well. We will do nothing to actually risk that mission when this has been the whole goal for what we have been doing the last three months."
The inspection team, which has been in Moscow since last Wednesday, is close to wrapping up its mission and any delays in producing a report would be minor.
The executive committee will consider the CRC's recommendations and will announce its ruling on January as scheduled.
