Five sports fall short of drug-testing rules

Handball and modern pentathlon were also described as falling short in complying with the World Anti-Doping Code, which was approved in 2003 and sets out drug-testing rules across all sports and countries.

The findings were submitted in a “code compliance” report to the WADA executive committee and foundation board last weekend in Montreal. The report has now been published on the agency’s Web site.

The world volleyball federation said Friday it has since come into compliance.

While sports which fail to comply with the code risk being excluded from the Olympics, WADA has extended the deadline for six months to give federations and national anti-doping agencies (NADOs) more time to come into line.

“There was a strong view expressed particularly by sport that one last concerted effort should be undertaken for the smaller sports federations and NADOs to become compliant,” WADA president John Fahey said in a speech to European Union sports ministers in Biarritz, France.

“There was a clear understanding ... that no further extensions of time should be given for the report to be finalized. During the next few months, WADA will continue to assist all organizations to ensure that they become compliant.”

WADA has been monitoring compliance with the code since its adoption in 2003. Signatories are required to accept, implement and enforce the rules and policies, which include provisions for out-of-competition testing programs and doping sanctions.

WADA has no power to take sanctions against non-compliant bodies, leaving that to the International Olympic Committee. Under IOC rules, any sports which don’t apply the doping code face expulsion from the Olympic program.

“All IFs (international federations) that are not compliant have until May to take the necessary measures and the IOC is confident that they will do so,” IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said Friday.

The international volleyball federation, or FIVB, issued a statement Friday saying it had now met WADA’s demands to improve out-of-competition testing and has been removed from the non-compliance list. It plans to implement a global program of no-notice testing next year.

“We are absolutely in line with all the rules,” FIVB spokesman Fabrizio Rossini told The Associated Press.

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