THE head of the World Anti-Doping Agency has hit out at Britain’s Olympic chief after he criticised WADA’s record in detecting and punishing drugs cheats.

WADA president John Fahey accused BOA chairman Colin Moynihan of making “misinformed and inaccurate” comments after Moynihan said the agency’s rules were “toothless”, adding that the organisation required an overhaul.

The two bodies are at loggerheads after WADA asked the BOA to remove the lifetime ban for drugs cheats from their anti-doping rules in light of LaShawn Merritt’s successful legal challenge in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Olympic Committee’s statutes.

CAS ruled that the IOC’s Article 45 which had prevented athletes banned for six months or more for drugs offences from competing in the next Olympic Games was “invalid and unenforceable” under the WADA code.

A statement from Fahey said: “It is disappointing to read the BOA president’s comments, some of which are misinformed and inaccurate, and many of which have been addressed by WADA stakeholders in the last code review, or by WADA in its present activities.

“Following the CAS decision in the Merritt case, determining Article 45 of the IOC charter to be an extra sanction and accordingly to be non-compliant, the IOC immediately informed WADA that the article would be nullified.

“Upon receipt of this decision, WADA immediately and diligently requested the BOA to examine its selection rule in light of the CAS ruling, on the basis that it might also be seen as an extra sanction, and hence non-compliant. So far, WADA has not received any correspondence in reply.”

Fahey said all signatories to the WADA code had agreed to implement it without applying any extra sanctions to drug cheats. The BOA insist their lifetime ban concerns eligibility and is not an extra sanction.