Paris (AFP)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspicions about the authenticity of data from the controls transmitted by the Moscow laboratory to shed light on the institutional doping system that has raged in the country between 2011 and 2015, did it? we learned from a source close to the file.
The agency's Compliance Review Committee (CRC), which is responsible for recommending sanctions, is due to report on the matter to WADA's Executive Committee meeting in Tokyo on Monday, AFP reported. source close to the folder.
The source confirmed a tweet from ARD TV journalist Hajo Seppelt that the Russians "are suspected of manipulating the Moscow lab data" handed over to WADA in early 2019, a gesture of the crisis. But the same source has called for caution, saying that "the Russians have yet to explain," and that the CRC is unlikely to issue a recommendation of sanction on Monday.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for WADA simply said that the "results of the report" of the CRC would be "made public" after the executive committee of the agency, but that "it is premature for the AMA to raise this case "before Monday.
The submission of anti-doping control data from the Moscow laboratory was one of the conditions imposed by WADA to lift the suspension of Russian anti-doping agency Rusada's compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code.
If fraud is proven, this could lead to WADA sanctioning Russia again, with consequences that could deprive the country of competing, such as the Tokyo Olympics next summer.
Russia is already suspended from all international athletics competition since November 2015 and revelations about an institutional doping system that has shaken the world sport. The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) must once again examine the issue on September 23 at its board, to decide whether or not to reinstate before the Doha Worlds (September 27 - October 6).
© 2019 AFP