WADA has revoked the accreditation of Africa’s only anti-doping laboratory in Bloemfontein, South Africa, due to significant testing flaws.
The World Anti-Doping Agency cited the lab’s failure to adequately address multiple nonconformities.
The facility had been provisionally suspended since September 2023 following issues with steroid detection in athlete samples.
This leaves Africa without a local WADA-accredited lab for sports drug testing.
Samples collected in Africa will now need to be transported to accredited labs in countries like India, Qatar, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.
Concerns exist that transporting samples over long distances from remote training centers could increase the risk of degradation, rendering them unusable for crucial testing.
