WADA has Russian lab data equivalent of '400,000 hours of music'

WADA said in a statement that it had uploaded 24 terabytes of data - equivalent to more than 400,000 hours of music or 5,200 DVDs - acquired from the Moscow anti-doping lab.

Representative Image: WADA said processing the data acquired from Moscow anti-doping lab would take two to three months.

The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) said on Wednesday that it is making progress processing the data its experts retrieved from the Moscow anti-doping lab in January.

WADA said in a statement that the process would take two to three months, adding that it had uploaded 24 terabytes of data - equivalent to more than 400,000 hours of music or 5,200 DVDs.

The statement quoted WADA's Director of Intelligence and Investigations Gunter Younger who said: “Essentially, what we have done is to recreate the Moscow Laboratory in a virtual sense, allowing us to pair the various data with their respective instruments so that we can ensure what we have is complete, accurate and has not been tampered with.”

Younger said that there were more than 1.5 million files.

“We are confident we will be able to tell if anything is missing or not as it should be,” Younger said. “Once we are satisfied that the data are authentic, we will be in a position to proceed to the next phase and support the various sports and other anti-doping organisations to bring cases against those who cheated.”

WADA said that “the successful data retrieval” was a result of the controversial decision to provisionally reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in September under the condition that the Russian authorities provide the data and samples.

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“The data are crucial to build strong cases against cheats and exonerate other athletes suspected of having participated in widespread doping,” WADA said.