Turkey runner-up in doping violations, says WADA report

MONTREAL

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Russia and Turkey produced the most doping violations in 2013, with athletics and weightlifting leading the sports with the highest number of cases, according to a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The WADA report found that 1,953 sanctions were handed out for doping violations committed in 2013. The cases involved athletes and support personnel in 115 countries and in 89 sports.

Russia led all countries with 225 violations, followed by Turkey with 188 and India with 90.

WADA said it was the most comprehensive set of doping statistics compiled to date.

“With close to 2,000 sanctions in one year and almost every sport represented, it’s evident that doping still represents a huge threat to modern day sports,” WADA president Craig Reedie said in a statement.

Athletics produced 280 violations, followed by weightlifting with 252 and cycling with 203.

The report covers both positive drug tests and so-called “non-analytical investigations,” which includes biological passport cases that rely on monitoring of athletes’ blood profiles for evidence of doping.

In Turkey, there were 53 violations in athletics and 48 in weightlifting, as well as bodybuilding and wrestling.

Of Russia’s 225 cases, 42 were in athletics.

The report describes 2013 as Turkey’s “year of doping scandals” in sports.

After two successful seasons for Turkish athletes, including a one-two finish at the women’s 1,500-meter event at the 2012 London Olympics, Turkish athletics was rocked by doping scandals in 2013.

In June of that year, eight Turkish athletes, including 2004 Olympic hammer silver medalist Eşref Apak, were caught doping, and dozens reportedly failed tests ahead of the Mediterranean Games.

In August, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced a two-year ban for nine Turkish athletes, including two teenagers, who tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The scandals resulted in the resignation of the Turkish Athletics Federation President Mehmet Terzi.

Also in June 2013, eight weightlifters were left off the Turkish national squad ahead of the Mediterranean Games, one day before the games kicked off in Mersin, after testing positive for doping. 

In February 2013, 16 members of Turkey’s under-23 weightlifting team tested positive for stanozolol, weeks after five members of the squad tested positive for the same substance during a competition in Israel, leaving the country with no clean weightlifters in the age group.