Russia leads 2014 doping tally: WADA

MONTREAL: Russia was the top drugs offender in 2014 accounting for 148 of the 1,693 doping violations recorded, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Wednesday.
Athletics accounted for 200 of the violations, coming second behind bodybuilding (207) in WADA's annual report for 2014.
Russia, which could miss the Rio Olympics athletics because of a doping scandal, was followed by Italy (123), India (96), Belgium (91), France (91), Turkey (73), Australia (49), China (49), Brazil (46) and South Korea (43) as the top 10 offending countries.
In total, individuals from 109 countries across 83 sports committed anti-doping rule violations.
A total of 1,462 of the doping violations arose through adverse analytical findings in conventional drug tests, while 231 were uncovered through evidence-based intelligence such as evading or refusing to submit a sample.
WADA Director General David Howman said the evidence-based violations highlighted "the increasing importance of non-analytical approaches to anti-doping."
"The Report also reminds us of the importance of values-based education to prevention and risk minimization," said Howman. — AFP