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Los Angeles (AFP)

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Tuesday it has issued a three-month partial accreditation suspension to the Los Angeles Olympic Laboratory for analyzing certain banned substances.

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) lab suspension began last Wednesday, according to a WADA statement, and was a result of WADA quality assessment procedures that "identified non-conformities with best practice."

During the suspension, the UCLA Laboratory can continue all regular anti-doping activities, but it must obtain a second opinion from another WADA-accredited lab before reporting any adverse findings for glucocorticoids "prednisolone" and "prednisone" and the anabolic steroids "boldenone" and "boldione".

The limited suspension to certain substances has been applied to labs previously in other situations, WADA said, and allows for proper monitoring of the lab to ensure improvements aimed at returning the lab to full WADA compliance are fully implemented.

WADA will conduct a site visit in a time frame that allows the UCLA lab to implement changes.

An independent WADA Disciplinary Committee advised by WADA's Laboratory Expert Group delivered its recommendation for the limited suspension to WADA's executive committee chair on June 14 and it was accepted.

Two days later, the UCLA Laboratory was notified of the decision. The lab has 21 days from that notification to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

© 2017 AFP