Athletics doping watchdog receives Moscow test files

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the watchdog set up to police doping in athletics, said Thursday it had received testing data from a Moscow laboratory at the centre of a vast doping conspiracy.

The independent body founded by the IAAF, athletics' world governing body, said it had received around 110,000 files from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on June 18.

The data, collected by WADA inspectors from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) of the Moscow Laboratory, concerns testing samples analysed in the period 2012 to 2015.

"The AIU will start analysing the LIMS data immediately with a view to reporting its findings to the IAAF Council in due course," the watchdog said in a statement.

The AIU said that no deadline had been set for the completion of the task.

Russia was banned from world athletics in 2015 following revelations of a state-backed doping programme dating back years.

Although the governing bodies of other sports have re-admitted Russia, the IAAF upheld the ban again earlier this month citing continued problems despite positive developments in anti-doping efforts in Russia.

Granting access to data from the Moscow laboratory at the centre of the scandal was noted as part of that progress.