INVESTIGATOR BACKS WADA IN CHINESE CASE

A final report on Sept 12 confirmed that the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada) did not show "favouritism" towards China, in the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who were cleared to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for a banned drug.

But it also found that Wada's antidoping rules and administrative processes can be further strengthened, which the agency itself acknowledged.

The report's author, Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, said he found "Wada has done its work autonomously, independently and professionally, and that there is no evidence to the contrary".

This matched his interim findings announced in early July, but United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) chief Travis Tygart, who has been an outspoken critic of Wada's handling of the affair, said the report "only validates our concerns".

Cottier noted in the final report that some anti-doping rules were not followed by the Chinese antidoping agency (Chinada), but added "it does not change the outcome of the cases and the acceptance of the contamination hypothesis".

In April, the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported that the swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) at a domestic competition in late 2020 and early 2021.