Gripper goes South, Rossi crosses the Alps

News from the Union Cycliste Internationale acquiring a new head of the Anti-Doping Service has surfaced, with the announced appointment of Francesca Rossi, of Italy, to replace Anne Gripper.


Ms Gripper, who joined the UCI in October 2006 with the title of Manager of the UCI Anti-Doping Service, returns to Australia for personal reasons, having overseen the various high- and low-points that rocked the cycling world since her appointment. WADAwatch honours her work efforts. A two-week old article with her comes to you, also from Cyclingnews.


Read more about Ms Francesca Rossi at an interesting interview provided by Cyclingnews. Her background with the IAAF is highlighted, and it is very pertinent to note that the IAAF holds the UCI's anti-doping efforts in high regard.


Ms Rossi served on the WADA 'laboratory committee', according to the article; its true title is the Laboratory Expert Group. WADAwatch hopes that Ms Rossi, as she gets up to speed, can help boost the organization's capabilities and competences for the standardization and advancement of laboratory practice, and precision.


Another short update from the snowy, sunny heights of Colorado. Enjoying this final week of winter,

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WADA world turns...

A multi-tasking agency, ZENmud productions has been off on a film-creation adventure that began (production-wise) about an hour after landing back in Geneva, Switzerland, from the WADA World Conference on Doping in Sport, which ended on 18 November, 2007.

WADAwatch is certainly invigorated, energized, through the contacts made, and especially the lively discussions that our lunch-table encounters shared.


In this past WADAwatch post:
Madrid ELEVEN: stratospheric déjeuner (FR: lunch)

... WADAwatch discussed how Saturday's lunchtable brought together the best possible group for my independent blog-author to join, and since that day a week ago, one can only wonder what conversation the participants might have shared, if WADAwatch hadn't taken a seat at a table offering the nexus of cycling and the future of WADA's control of sport doping.

In a deep discussion with Rune Andersen, WADA Director of the Standards and Harmonization Committee, he emphasized that the crystelZENmud/WADAwatch Questionnaire for WADA laboratories, developed and sent to the then-34 WADA-accredited labs in the early fall, expressed unfamiliarity of the WADA International Standard for laboratories.

In a nutshell, it was the contention by this author that the WADA CODE 2003/2007 (as approved in Madrid), fell woefully short on control against wayward laboratories who, through inadvertance, error, negligence or malice, may have failed their duty to perform their testing function in adherence to the WADA and other international standards that most or all high-quality labs find elementary to their functioning within the law. Andersen countered this opinion.

But WADAwatch is going to develop and publish a further statement as to the imbalances between the WADA CODE 2007 and the ISL, because with the utmost in respect, Mr. Andersen's statements seem without substantial support, to this legally-trained author with treaty-editing experience. This would sound incredible, or brash, perhaps, if coming from someone else.

Fourteen-hour filming assignments, daily for a week, didn't allow for a post-operative debriefing from WADA's World Conference in Madrid.

We'll soon be back on this, for the benefit of WADA, and its Signatories.


Watching!WADA from a usual perch (filets de?)

..........@..........WADAwatch