• UK Sport chair unhappy with expected decision • ‘The integrity of sport and competition has to be protected’

The World Anti-Doping Agency is set to ignore widespread anger from athletes’ groups and the anti-doping community by lifting the ban on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency when its 12-strong executive committee meets in the Seychelles on Thursday.

With at least nine members of the committee reckoned to support the “compromise” deal proposed by the Wada president, Craig Reedie, and director general, Olivier Niggli, to the Russian minister of sport, groups opposed to allowing Russia back are fearing the worst.

Anti-doping rift deepens as agencies turn on Wada over Russia ‘compromise’ Read more

Dame Katherine Grainger, Britain’s most decorated female Olympian, said it would be wrong to welcome Rusada back until it had “fully and transparently met” the original roadmap.

That would mean accepting the results of the McLaren investigation and permitting access to the Moscow laboratory and providing the data necessary to ensure justice on hundreds of outstanding cases.

Former rower Grainger, now chair of UK Sport, also sent a warning to Wada’s leaders. “What doping steals from athletes is irreplaceable and the integrity of sport and competition has to be protected to maintain public trust and support,” she said. “This responsibility rests with leaders at every level.”

However while most groups are vehemently opposed to lifting the ban on Rusada, which has been in place since 2015, the athletes’ commission of the International Olympic Committee said it “agreed in principle” with the recommendation to end the suspension.

Grigory Rodchenkov is the whistleblower who provided much of the evidence for the McLaren report, which revealed more than 1,000 Russian athletes in 30 sports had been part of a state-sponsored doping programme. Rodchenkov insisted that letting Rusada back “would be a catastrophe for Olympic sport ideals, the fight against doping and the protection of clean athletes. He said: “Wada must not fall prey to manipulation and false assertions from the ministry, the same arm of the Kremlin that facilitated the doping program and asserted false compliance.”