Doping Samples Of Russian Athletes From 2014 Destroyed In Standard Procedure -Ex-Lab Chief

Doping Samples of Russian Athletes From 2014 Destroyed in Standard Procedure -Ex-Lab Chief

Samples from Russian athletes, which caused suspicion from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2014, have been destroyed according to Lausanne laboratory regulations, contrary to allegations made by Richard McLaren in his WADA report, Martial Saugy, the former laboratory director, told Sputnik on Wednesday

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2019) Samples from Russian athletes, which caused suspicion from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2014, have been destroyed according to Lausanne laboratory regulations, contrary to allegations made by Richard McLaren in his WADA report, Martial Saugy, the former laboratory director, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

In his report on the alleged Russian doping operation, McLaren stated that when the investigative commission, which he chaired, asked the Lausanne laboratory to provide 67 Russian samples for further investigation, the laboratory had already destroyed all the samples. The report alleges that the Lausanne laboratory might have been careless in handling the evidence.

"Destroying samples after three months is a standard practice in all WADA laboratories, usually due to lack of space, except when the anti-doping organization specifically requests long-term preservation. That is why at some point we informed the WADA, that we intended to destroy those negative samples in accordance with standard procedure," Saugy said.

According to Saugy, that was when miscommunication occurred, because a year later the agency requested the remaining negative samples.

He stressed that the agency had acknowledged that the Lausanne laboratory had committed no mistake in handling the Russian samples.

In 2016, a number of Russian athletes and sports officials were accused of running an institutional doping conspiracy during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. As a result of the 2016 scandal, many Russian athletes were banned from subsequent championships. In 2018, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the appeals of 28 of them. On July 12 of this year, the CAS lifted the lifetime Olympic ban from former Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Russian officials have categorically denied the very possibility of the existence of a state-run doping program in the country, but have admitted there were some isolated cases of doping abuse.