Turkey's anti-doping laboratory gets reaccredited

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has reapproved the accreditation of Turkey's anti-doping laboratory in the Turkish capital of Ankara, which was revoked in 2011.

The agency’s board at its recent bi-annual meeting in Montreal also approved the accreditation of anti-doping laboratories in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, the agency said in an official statement Wednesday.

“The WADA Foundation Board held a very productive meeting in Montreal today (Tuesday), at which the important matters of the World Anti-Doping Code’s implementation and laboratory accreditation were discussed in full,” the agency’s President, Sir Craig Reedie, said.

The reaccreditation was given to the Laboratorio Brasileiro De Controle De Dopagem Laboratory in Rio de Janeiro and, the Turkish Doping Control Center Laboratory in Hacettepe University in Ankara after both laboratories completed the required remedial work as stipulated in the International Standard for Laboratories.

"There are 34 WADA-accredited laboratories worldwide. It is remarkable that one of them is in our country, because it shows the importance that we attach to anti-doping issue," Turkish Doping Control Center chief Rustu Guner told Anadolu Agency Thursday.

The Turkish center aims to carry out testing of 10,000 doping control samples of sportsmen from 40 countries, especially Balkans, Middle East and African countries, the center’s science chief Bekir Salih said.

As part of the reaccreditation process, both laboratories were subjected to multiple site visits; participation in WADA’s External Quality Assessment Scheme monitored by the WADA Laboratory Expert Group; and International Organization for Standardization assessment by independent accreditation bodies.

WADA had revoked the accreditation of the laboratory in Ankara in 2011 due to non-compliance. Previousily, it was also suspended for three months in March 2009.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is the international independent organization created in 1999 to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against doping in sports in all its forms. The agency is composed and funded equally by the sports movement and governments of the world. Its key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code – the first document harmonizing regulations regarding anti-doping in all sports and all countries.