WADA slams Brazil over lax testing

The World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) has slammed Brazil's decision to stop testing its Olympic team in the build-up to Rio 2016.

Brazil's sports ministry compelled the country's anti-doping agency to cease testing team members, claiming the measure was a result of WADA's decision to suspend Rio's anti-doping laboratory and that the nearest official labs in Cuba, Mexico and Colombia were unable to step in.

However, WADA has called the lack of testing, which the sports ministry stated was from July 1-24th, 'unacceptable'.

"The response WADA received was unsatisfactory and the situation was unacceptable," a WADA spokesman said.

"We informed the (International Olympic Committee's) pre-Olympic Games Task Force and immediately requested that they up the number of tests in order to prevent any further gaps in the process.

"At a time when the integrity of sport is on the line, it is vital that effective, rigorous testing is in place across the world so that the athletes and public have full confidence in sport."

However, according to Professor Luis Horta, a former senior official from Brazil's anti-doping agency, the sports ministry requested they conducted fewer tests.

"The sports ministry and the Olympic committee were putting pressure on us saying we were making too many doping controls on the athletes and this was causing a problem for their training," Horta told The Times.

"We were performing around three a year and in some cases on the best athletes as many as six in the last year.

"They also said we were too strict in the employment of the whereabouts system (that is used to locate athletes for no-notice tests).

"The anti-doping agency's primary objective was for many medals and all of them clean, and that's what's supported by the majority of Brazilians.

"But this goal was not shared by all parties: some just wanted many medals, whether clean or not."