President of the World Anti-Doping agency Craig Reedie has admitted that he would have preferred the Russian Olympic committee’s (ROC) suspension to have lasted longer to give more time to get the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) fully compliant.

The decision to reinstate Russian was confirmed by the IOC earlier this week, after all remaining tests from the neutral Olympic athletes from Russia (oar) team had come back negative from Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Russia were suspended and forced to compete under the oar name at the winter Olympics in South Korea last month due to their “systemic manipulation” of the Anti-Doping regime at Sochi 2014.  Things took a bad turn in South Korea after two failed drug tests by Russian athletes, with more pressure coming from outsiders to keep the ban in place.

However on the day of the closing ceremony, oar implementation group chair Nicole Hoevertsz stated the panel had recommended the suspension be lifted immediately once the IOC received notification from her that there had been no further positive doping cases involving any of the oar athletes.

At the time, WADA said they “acknowledged” the IOC’s decision but stopped short of supporting it.