The Latvian anti-doping regulation is recognized as compliant with the Anti-Doping Code
Riga, January 18, LETA. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has declared Latvia’s anti-doping regulation compliant with the latest version of the Anti-Doping Code, according to a statement released by WADA on Monday.
As a result, WADA has excluded the Latvian Anti-Doping Agency (LAB) and several other countries and regions from the so-called Watch List. Latvia was previously given a deadline of 14 January 2022 to put in place anti-doping legislation.
Along with Latvia, anti-doping supervisors from Greece, Iran, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Uzbekistan, three regions of Belgium and Montenegro were also removed from the watch list, with the only one having a later deadline.
Edgars Severs, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia, Director of the Sports Department, shared a link to the WADA announcement on the microblogging site “Twitter” and thanked the colleagues of the LAB and the Ministry of Health for their joint work.
LAB head Mārtiņš Dimants previously explained to LETA that the Latvian side had worked hard not to be included in the list of countries already subject to sanctions, therefore inclusion in this list alone was the best of the possible scenarios.
The first step was taken at the beginning of July, when the Saeima adopted in the final reading the amendments to the Sports Law that were recognized as urgent, which envisage supplementing the regulation in the field of anti-doping and taking over the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Code. The next steps were to adapt national anti-doping rules and the Anti-Doping Agency Law.
Non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code could result in athletes not being able to compete in international competitions under their national flag, as is the case with Russian athletes.
