Russia leads 2014 doping tally, India third: WADA

Montreal, April 28

Russia was the top drugs offender in 2014 accounting for 148 of the 1,693 doping violations recorded, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said.

Athletics and bodybuilding were the worst offenders, accounting for more than 400 of the violations between them in WADA’s annual report for 2014.

Russia, which could miss the Rio Olympics athletics because of a doping scandal, was followed by Italy (123), India (96), Belgium (91), France (91), Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), Brazil (46) and South Korea (43) as the top 10 offending countries.

In total, individuals from 109 countries across 83 sports committed anti-doping rule violations.

A total of 1,462 of the doping violations arose through adverse analytical findings in conventional drug tests, while 231 were uncovered through evidence-based intelligence such as evading or refusing to submit a sample.

WADA Director General David Howman said the evidence-based violations highlighted “the increasing importance of non-analytical approaches to anti-doping.” “The Report also reminds us of the importance of values-based education to prevention and risk minimization,” said Howman.

Russia’s place at the top of the doping charts comes with the country battling to ensure its track and field athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympics in August.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is to rule in June on Russia’s participation in the Games amid calls for their athletes to be banned.

Russian athletes were banned from competing internationally last year after an independent commission chaired by ex-WADA chief Dick Pound found evidence of state-sponsored doping in the country.

The commission report accused Russia of “sabotaging” the 2012 London Olympics by allowing the participation of several athletes with suspicious blood biological passport results.

It also accused staff at Russia’s main anti-doping laboratory of “aiding and abetting” drug cheats. The Russian Sports Ministry was also accused of issuing orders to “manipulate particular samples.”

WADA earlier this month revoked the Moscow laboratory’s accreditation due to “non-compliance with the International Standard for Laboratories and the related Technical Documents.” —AFP