WADA refuses to accredit Belarusian laboratory
Image: open source
Belarus will not be getting a WADA accredited laboratory anytime soon, head of the Olympic movement development department of the National Olympic Committee Dzmitry Dauhalyonak told intefax.by.
“There are some interdictions and taboos” as regards the existence of a doping control laboratory in Belarus, the NOC representative said. The issue cannot be solved at the moment. The International Olympic Committee has refused accreditation to such a laboratory without explaining the reasons. There are about 30 WADA accredited laboratories all over the world and the IOC does not want to create more, Dzmitry Dauhalyonak noted.
Meanwhile, Belarus is interested in creating such a laboratory before the 2nd European Games in 2019 because it will help to save money on tests. The nearest laboratory is situated in Moscow but is currently inactive, so it is necessary to use other laboratories. The faster you get results, the more it costs.
Belarus would have a good opportunity to make money if it had its own laboratory since there are only two WADA accredited laboratories on the territory of the Customs Union – in Russia and Kazakhstan. Furthermore, the number of Belarusian athletes using doping has decreased in the past several years.
