World Anti-Doping Agency doubles ban for doping offences

The so-called Osaka Rule, which banned those guilty of serious doping offences from the following Olympic Games, has been dropped from the latest draft version of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter had been introduced to prevent any athlete banned for six months or more for doping from the subsequent Olympic Games, but WADA now plans to scrap it in the revised code set for introduction in 2015 and instead increase the sanction for serious offences from a two-year ban to four years.