From Inside the Games

Names of around 300 Russian athletes have been given to International Federations by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Lausanne today after they were implicated in a database obtained from the Moscow Laboratory.

All of the athletes are thought to have tested positive before being awarded negative results between April 2012 and September 2015.

WADA director of intelligence and investigations (I&I), Günter Younger, informed representatives of over 25 International Federations of the names of those under suspicion.

They claim to be confident that new evidence will ensure that cases which “have previously hit a dead-end can be resumed and new cases can be initiated – a number of which we believe will result in athletes being sanctioned”.

Both summer and winter sports were among 60 International Federatin representatives present alongside officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee and other unspecified anti-doping organisations.

Athletes identified include those who would be expected to compete at next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The obtaining last month of the Laboratory information management system (LIMS) database, achieved without Russian cooperation, was hailed as a major breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into institutional doping and sample tampering by the world’s largest country.

It is thought to have corroborated much of the evidence provided by former Moscow Laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov, the main source for information in the WADA-commissioned McLaren Report.

Nearly 10,000 names were initially found on the list.

This was whittled down to around 300 elite current athletes competing at international level.

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