The WADA announced today that they have suspended the accreditation for the Almaty, Kazakhstan laboratory.
“The decision to suspend the laboratory is a direct result of the more stringent quality assessment procedures enacted by WADA to ensure laboratories maintain the highest standards,” according to the release from the WADA website today.
The suspension period is four months, and was issued on June 24th, just four days ago. The lab is not allowed to partake in any anti-doping activities, and any blood or urine samples must be securely sent to another WADA-accredited lab.
The Almaty lab can appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days of receipt of notice.
The WADA is in charge of monitoring anti-doping labs, and must accredit and re-accredit labs as necessary.
Whenever a laboratory does not meet international requirements, the WADA can choose to suspend that laboratory.
This isn’t very new in terms of labs losing their accreditation of late; the laboratory in Rio was recently revoked of its accreditation, too, with just over a month left before the start of the Olympics. Also, the Madrid lab lost its accreditation earlier this month.