World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) inspectors are to leave Moscow empty-handed after Russian authorities prevented them from accessing key doping data that the nation’s authorities had agreed to hand over.
WADA in September reinstated the suspended Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on the condition that Russian authorities hand over lab data, which could help confirm a number of violations uncovered during an investigation that revealed a state-sponsored doping program designed to win medals at the Sochi Olympics and other major events.
However, WADA on Friday said its delegation “was unable to complete its mission” because Russia unexpectedly demanded that its equipment be “certified under Russian law.”
WADA said the demand was not raised at earlier talks. The deadline to turn over the data is Dec. 31.
Team leader Toni Pascual is to prepare a report on the failed mission, WADA said.
The compliance review committee is to meet on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, where it could recommend that the ban on RUSADA be reimposed.
WADA kept open the option of returning to the lab before year’s end if Russia resolves the issue.
Russian Minister of Sport Pavel Kolobkov told local media that the WADA delegation would return, but there was no word on the date and no mention of the issue raised by WADA.
WADA leaders portrayed Russia’s willingness to turn over the data as a key reason for agreeing to reinstate RUSADA, despite its failure to comply with key requirements on the “road map” WADA had set out.
“We’ve tried to come to terms with the Russians on how this was to be done, and this is the first time since discussing it that they’ve actually said ‘yes,’” WADA director-general Olivier Niggli said in September in an impassioned defense of the decision. “We hope they’ll fulfill that promise.”
It was a widely criticized decision and the reaction to Friday’s news was predictable.
“Surprise, surprise — anyone shocked by this?” US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive officer Travis Tygart said. “Let’s hope WADA leadership has finally learned the lesson and immediately declares them noncompliant. Anything else is simply another shiv in the back of clean athletes.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with