Spain and Mexico have been declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code after failing to meet a deadline for making required changes to their drugs testing procedures, it has been announced today
Ukraine, declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at its Foundation Board meeting in Coloardo Springs last November, have had their compliance status restored, however.
Spain and Mexico were among seven countries to be named on a compliance watch list by WADA at that November meeting.
Greece, Brazil and France and two National Anti-Doping Agencies (NADO) representing Belgium all resolved their Code-related concerns by the deadline of midnight last night,WADA confirmed in a statement today.,
All now are considered to have rules fully compliant with the Code and will face no further sanctions.
The other two, however, have not resolved their respective issues, and are therefore declared non-compliant with the Code.
Spain’s problems have been exacerbated by the fact the country remains without a Government after negotiations continue to stall to create a coalition following the election of a hung Parliament last December, meaning there was no way to approve any changes.
WADA “recognises that there is currently no sitting Government in the country, and therefore understands the difficulties the country is facing with resolving its outstanding issues at this time,” the statement said.
“As it relates to testing in Spain during non-compliance, an agreement is being reached for testing to be carried out by International Sport Federations.
“This will ensure that effective testing programmes can be run in the lead up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Spain has received criticism for anti-doping procedures in the past.
This has recently centered on a judge in Madrid ruling that blood bags and other evidence in the “Operation Puerto” trial into doctor Eufemiano Fuentes should be destroyed rather than handed over to anti-doping authorities at the completion of the case.
- By Nick Butler
- Republished with permission insidethegames.biz