MOSCOW (Reuters) - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Tuesday it had decided not to re-impose a suspension on Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA despite Moscow missing a deadline to hand over laboratory data.
RUSADA had asked WADA last week not to suspend it after missing the deadline at the end of 2018, which was a condition for the agency to hold on to its accreditation.
RUSADA was suspended in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics.
WADA reinstated RUSADA in September last year, angering sports bodies around the globe. The global body said failure to provide access to data from the former Moscow anti-doping laboratory by the end of 2018 would lead to a renewed ban.
But WADA on Tuesday said that it would continue to follow a roadmap for RUSADA to keep its accreditation and would not suspend the agency for the missed deadline.
WADA said last week it had eventually retrieved the data from the laboratory, more than two weeks after the deadline had passed.
Russia has denied the existence of state-sponsored doping in the country but has acknowledged some shortcomings in its enforcement of anti-doping regulations.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Christian Lowe)