Friday April 30th 2021
“We didn’t have a choice”
Scandal in front of the camera at Lady World Cup
It’s actually just a sticker and a small flag. But because the host of the Lady World Championships has joined the International Anti-Doping Agency, the symbols of Russia are banned due to its fraud scandal. That now causes a scandal in the middle of the final.
The effects of the Russian doping scandal have now reached even the last corner of the board game scene. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stepped in because defending champion Tamara Tansychuschina from Russia against her Polish challenger Natalia Sadowska illegally competed under her national flag at the World Championships for women players in Warsaw – a scandal followed in front of the camera.
In response to the telephone intervention of the office of the Polish WADA President Witold Banka, the World Lady Federation FMJD was forced to take immediate action to prevent a sanction. A video of the game shows an official rushing onto the stage and removing the Russian flag from the side of the board of the visibly snubbed Tansychuschina and peeling off the sticker with the Russian flag.
Tansychuschina lost concentration and game four of the title fight against ex-world champion Sadowska. The world association asked the Russian for forgiveness. “Before the match, the FMJD asked the organizers in Poland to meet the WADA requirements. Despite great efforts, something has probably been overlooked,” said a statement. After the call from WADA, “a small association like the FMJD had no choice” and had to act quickly.
The FMJD has signed the WADA code and is therefore subject to its regulations. As a consequence of the Russian doping scandal, athletes from the country are only allowed to compete in world championships under a neutral statute. The national flag and anthem are accordingly prohibited.
The affair could have bitter consequences for Tansychuschina: Before the seventh of nine rounds in the World Cup, which was postponed to 2021 due to the corona pandemic and only played as a duel, she is 33:39 behind. If the Russian still manages to turn the match, it would be her seventh title. For Sadowska it would be the third success. The record winner is Zoja Golubeva with a total of 17 titles, 14 of them under the Latvian flag, the last so far from 2017. Under the Soviet flag, Golubeva won her first three gold medals from 1986 to 1990.
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