WADA Athlete Committee expects Russia to be declared non-compliant

Moscow, January 3: The Athlete Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) expects Russia to be declared non-compliant after the country's own anti-doping agency, RUSADA, missed a deadline to provide data from its Moscow laboratory.

RUSADA was given a deadline of December 31 to enable access to the data, in one of two conditions stipulated by WADA's Executive Committee when they reinstated the body as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code in September.

However, a statement from WADA on New Year's Day confirmed "the deadline has elapsed without the data having been retrieved".

As a result, the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) is now set to meet on January 14-15, before providing a recommendation to the WADA Executive Committee regarding RUSADA.

A statement on Wednesday from WADA's Athlete Committee read: "We are extremely disappointed that the Dec. 31 deadline imposed on Russia by WADA has not been adhered to by the Russian authorities.

Statement from the WADA Athlete Committee on Russian Compliance situation: https://t.co/UWS7Lua5PS

— WADA (@wada_ama) January 2, 2019

"We now expect that following the process recommended by the CRC that Russia will be declared non-compliant.

"Only this action will be suitable and appropriate in the view of the athletes.

"Anything less will be considered a failure by WADA to act on behalf of clean athletes."