Olympics: Disciplinary hearing into Moscow lab: WADA

A disciplinary committee has made recommendations in a probe of Moscow’s testing laboratory ahead of next year’s Sochi Winter Olympics, the global anti-doping chief said Friday.

“The disciplinary committee has met and considered the evidence that it has received,” said World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey in Johannesburg.

Under WADA’s rules Fahey now has the final say whether to strip accreditation of the Moscow lab, months before the Sochi Games.

“There is still a process to be undertaken,” said Fahey, adding he has not had time to decide amid meetings during the World Conference on Doping in Sport.

WADA’s board on Friday approved new, stringent rules against cheaters, which include a four-year ban for intentional first-time offenders.

If Moscow loses its accreditation, it cannot test athletes’ urine and blood samples for banned substances in the Winter Olympics in Sochi from February 7 to 23.

That will follow WADA’s revocation of Rio de Janeiro laboratory’s rights to test in August, which will force organisers to fly samples to Switzerland during the football World Cup in Brazil.