WADA extends Kenya's deadline to May 2

The World Anti-Doping Agency has extended for a second time the deadline for Kenya’s anti-doping agency to come into compliance or risk missing the Rio Olympics.

WADA confirmed in a statement that it would give the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya until May 2 to comply with the code. Kenya previously missed a Feb. 11 deadline to establish legal framework for ADAK and implement a program compliant with WADA’s code.

Kenya has been on WADA’s watch-list since November, and International Association of Athletics Federation president Sebastian Coe has threatened to ban Kenyan athletes from the Summer Games, which start Aug. 5.

Kenya has not had a national anti-doping agency and missed a deadline Tuesday to show it is addressing anti-doping.

According to Agence France-Presse, lawmakers in Kenya last week left for a month-long recess without approving legislation criminalizing sports doping.

According to a WADA statement, ADAK missed the original Feb. 11 deadline, and WADA referred the matter to its independent compliance review committee. That group met on Tuesday to discuss Kenya’s implementation of the code, concluding, “the current situation is not in compliance with the 2015 Code, since the bill, policy and ADAK rules have not yet been formally adopted.”

If that is not done by May 2, the committee will recommend to the WADA Foundation Board that ADAK be declared non-compliant with the WADA code.

That board will vote at its meeting on May 12.