Failing to meet required standards, WADA suspends Romanian laboratory for six months

Montreal: The World Anti-Doping Agency has suspended Romania's drug-testing laboratory for six months, saying it didn't meet the required standard. WADA says it imposed the sanction on the lab in Bucharest "due to a number of non-conformities" with regulations, but it didn't specify the problems.

The lab is now forbidden from testing any samples and must transfer any in its possession to another laboratory. The ban is backdated to Nov. 29, when a provisional suspension was imposed after the faults were found.

WADA has stepped up checks on laboratories around the world ever since uncovering evidence of wide-ranging doping and cover-ups at the Moscow laboratory. Various labs from around the world have had their accreditations temporarily suspended to fix problems with their testing procedures.