Russia bore responsibility for more doping violations than any other country in 2014, while athletics was the sport with the worst doping record over the year, according to a new report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Wada’s second annual Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) Report said Russia accounted for 148 of the 1,693 failed tests recorded. Italy (123), India (96), Belgium (91), France (91),Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), Brazil (46) and South Korea (43) completed the top-10 in a list that illustrates doping offences committed in global sport.
Russia remains banned from international athletics in the wake of the suspension handed out by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following allegations of state-sponsored and systematic doping made by a Wada panel. Earlier this week, Wada appointed former war crimes investigator Peter Nicholson to assist the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) in revamping its anti-doping programme.
The Australian, who will lead the project to rebuild Russia’s programme over the next two years, is to be joined by Ieva Lukosiute-Stanikuniene, the director of the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency. Rusada was suspended by Wada in the wake of its panel’s report in November. Rusada, Wada and the UK Anti-Doping agency signed a deal in February to maintain testing of Russian athletes inside and outside the country.
In the report for 2014, Wada said athletics led the number of doping violations by sport with 248, followed by bodybuilding (225) and cycling (168). Weightlifting (143) and powerlifting (116) came next in the list.
Wada said 1,693 violations were recorded in 2014, out of 217,762 test samples sent to its accredited laboratories. Amongst the violations, 1,462 were the result of banned substances being detected in blood and urine samples by the athletes. A further 231 were the result of an athlete’s behaviour, rather than a scientific analysis.
Wada director general David Howman said: “These were determined through evidenced-based intelligence collected; such as evading, refusing or failing to submit a sample; possession and/or trafficking of a prohibited substance; or complicity, amongst other means. This proves the increasing importance of non-analytical approaches to anti-doping, something which is now well emphasised under the revised World Anti-Doping Code.”
The 2014 report’s figures represent the final year under the 2009 World Anti-Doping Code. Wada noted that the number of recorded cases of doping fell in 2014, with banned substance violations numbering 1,687 in 2013.
Wada president Sir Craig Reedie added: “Wada looks forward to next year’s ADRVs Report; which, we believe, will reflect the impact of the new Code and the improved practice being carried out by the anti-doping community.”
