IOC back Reedie reelection as WADA chief

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday backed Craig Reedie's reelection as World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) president despite tensions over the handling of the Russian doping affair.

"The IOC is not putting forward another candidate," an IOC source revealed, guaranteeing that the 75-year-old Scot will be reelected for another three-year term during Sunday's meeting of the WADA Foundation Board in Glasgow.

Reedie, also an IOC vice-president, was first elected as WADA president in 2013, succeeding Australian John Fahey.

Founded in 1999 on the initiative of the IOC following the Festina cycling doping scandal, WADA is based in Montreal and has an annual budget of $27 million (25.2m euros).

Its aim is to harmonise anti-doping regulations between governments and sporting organisations worldwide.

In recent months however relations between WADA and the IOC have deteriorated so badly that it was feared the IOC, which provides half of WADA's annual budget, might sideline the regulator and set up a new organisation which it could control more closely.