Reinstated RUSADA asks WADA to confirm compliance status

[January 19, 2019]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's anti-doping agency RUSADA has asked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to confirm its compliance at a meeting next week after Moscow missed a deadline to hand over laboratory data.

Last year WADA voted, subject to certain conditions, to lift the ban on RUSADA which was suspended in 2015 following allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping.

But for RUSADA keep its accreditation, Russia had to provide WADA with data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory by the end of last year.

Moscow missed the deadline and WADA said this week that it had finally retrieved the laboratory data.

"I assure you that although RUSADA has no authorities and rights to provide access and execute the condition on the ... former Moscow Laboratory key analytical data provision, the agency made and is making efforts to ensure fulfillment of the WADA Executive Committee requirements ... by the deadline," Yuri Ganus, the director general of RUSADA, said in a letter to WADA President Craig Reedie and members of its Executive Committee.

A sign is on display outside the office of Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in Moscow, Russia March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

WADA's Executive Committee will consider RUSADA's compliance on Jan. 22.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Writing by Maria Kiselyova, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

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