Romania's anti-doping chief Balaj says specialist lab to reopen in Bucharest soon

Chairman of Romania's National Anti-Doping Agency (ANAD) Cristian Balaj has told AGERPRES in an interview that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will soon re-instate the Bucharest Doping Control Laboratory.

In his interview Balaj provides details of the anti-doping state of play in Romania and the number of tests that were and will be carried out of Romanian athletes, including Liga I soccer players.

"I would not want to be considered a political statement, but knowing the efforts made by the government, who were also representatives of Romania at the WADA seminar in Lausanne this year, and having attended the discussions with the WADA representatives, where Romania's requirements were firm and in accordance with the realities and achievements in the development of the laboratory, because very important steps have been taken, and they deserve to be congratulated both by the laboratory and the entire government, a WADA opinion was expressed that the lab will be re-instated (...) in a matter of few weeks (...), "said Balaj.

The 15th edition of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Annual Symposium took place March 13-14 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Following a thorough investigation, the World Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended the Bucharest lab on 29 November 2017 for having covered up positive test samples undergone by Romanian athletes. The main targets of the WADA investigation were the lab director, Valentin Pop, and former deputy director Mirela Zorio, both removed from office in 2017.

Of 18 doping control laboratories in Europe, at this point 3 are partially or totally suspended by WADA, for various reasons: Stockholm (Sweden), Lisbon (Portugal) and Bucharest (Romania).

The Bucharest Doping Control Laboratory is currently headed by Cristina Stan, who has served as its director since May 2018.

The Doping Control Laboratory in Bucharest was established in 1983 and has long been the only laboratory accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency in Eastern Europe. The laboratory is a public organisation with a legal personality, independent from the analytical, financial, scientific and operational points of view of the National Anti-Doping Agency (ANAD) and any sports bodies, operating under the authority of the government and coordinated by the prime minister, financed from own revenues and public subsidies.