WADA votes to to spare Russia over missed deadline on laboratory access

Russia has escaped punishment for failing to meet a December 31 deadline for providing access to the Moscow laboratory at the heart of its state-run doping programme, the World Anti-Doping Agency has confirmed.

WADA controversially lifted the Russian Anti-Doping Agency's near three-year ban in September but on two strict conditions: the Russians would let independent experts retrieve testing data from the laboratory by the end of the year, and they would then release any stored samples needed to pursue anti-doping cases by June 30.