Photo/Illutration Olivier Niggli, director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, during an online interview (Hiroki Tohda)

LONDON--A senior antidoping regulator official expressed disappointment with a court's decision this month to reduce Russia’s four-year ban from global sports over a doping scandal to two years, especially with the case his agency put forward.

"We are a bit disappointed that the consequences they decided were less than what we had recommended,” Olivier Niggli, the director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said in an online interview with The Asahi Shimbun on Dec. 18.

The ruling, issued on Dec. 17 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, made Russia ineligible to enter teams in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, as well as in other major events, over the next two years, rather than the four-year ban recommended by the WADA.

But the CAS ruling will still allow many Russian athletes to compete in high-profile events as individuals while using white, blue and red--three colors used in the Russian flag--and their country’s name on their uniforms.

It baffled many athletes and those in the antidoping world that called for a harsh court ruling over the long-running Russian athlete doping scandal.

“I understand that some people, athletes and so on, may be a bit frustrated and sometimes disappointed by the decision,” Niggli said.

But he said they need to accept the process and the role of the tribunal and the ruling.

“I don't think we could have done our job better,” Niggli said. “They confirm that the evidence, the allegation and the evidence of manipulation, that we have uncovered and put forward, were confirmed and totally accepted by the CAS panel.”

In 2016, the WADA recommended to ban Russia from the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

But the International Olympic Committee left the decision to sanction Russia to individual international federations.

Only the International Paralympic Committee followed the WADA’s recommendation.

But new rules were adopted in April 2018 to sanction the public authorities of a country that has organized a doping program.

The current CAS ruling marks the first time the new rules were applied.

“I think that's a very important milestone for us because it gives us actual authority we can use in other cases to go after a government or public authority, which would be organizing doping, and not just signatory,” Niggli said.

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