Los Angeles: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is expected to rule against Russia’s anti-doping body at a key meeting in Colorado on Wednesday which will aim to map out future strategies for the global war on drugs.
WADA’s hierarchy meets to assess the findings of its independent panel, which uncovered a wide-ranging state-supported doping program in Russia that has plunged athletics into the biggest crisis in its history.
The IAAF on Friday provisionally suspended Russian athletes from international competition, potentially putting their participation at next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics in jeopardy.
WADA’s executive committee will meet in Colorado Springs, outside Denver on Tuesday before a full meeting of the agency’s foundation board on Wednesday, where officials are expected to rule that Russia’s anti-doping body (RUSADA) has been non-compliant with its code.
The board will also consider a range of recommendations made by the independent panel to strengthen WADA.
The global anti-doping body had already suspended Moscow’s main drug-testing laboratory, whose director resigned last week.
WADA President Craig Reedie said in a statement on Friday the current scandal represented the “tip of the iceberg” and that a new approach was needed to keep drugs cheats firmly on the defensive.
“To truly tackle the scourge of doping, the anti-doping community must further improve the approach that has been employed to date; and, above all, the resources that are attributed to it,” he said.
Reedie said while WADA had “punched above its weight” in the first 16 years of its existence, there was broad recognition that the body required greater resources to tackle doping effectively.
