From Inside the Games
Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) director general Yury Ganus has claimed the organisation has been “betrayed” and warned sport in the country was heading for the “abyss” after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found data from the Moscow Laboratory may have been manipulated.
In an open letter, Ganus said those behind the alleged tampering had “brought Russian sport to such an unacceptable point in the doping crisis” and had “discredited” sport in the scandal-plagued nation.
WADA is investigating whether the data, which Russia handed over in January, has been manipulated and has given RUSADA and the Russian Sports Ministry until October 9 to explain the “inconsistencies” it has uncovered.
They will have to address the differences between the Laboratory Information Management System database provided by a whistleblower in October 2017 and the version WADA extracted from the facility earlier this year.
WADA has opened a compliance procedure against RUSADA, which could lead to Russia being banned from next year’s Olympic Games.
Stricter rules for non-compliance are available to WADA under the new standards, including preventing countries from participating at major events.
Compliance Review Committee chairman Jonathan Taylor said a team of forensic experts, who analysed the data, could find no “innocent reason” for the inconsistencies, thought to include the deletion of positive test results.
“We have been betrayed, we have had the right to be on the side of truth taken away from us,” Ganus wrote.
“Today, Russia’s sports organisations are no longer on the edge of the abyss, we are flying into an abyss, the depth of which is difficult to predict.
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