WADA chief defends agency's actions

World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie has defended his organisation's actions in the Russian drugs affair, but conceded things needed to improve.

Reedie told the general assembly of the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday that WADA acted swiftly when the allegations came up and published the damning report on Russia from Richard McLaren even though there were just two weeks left until the start of the Rio Games.

In the face of harsh criticism from the IOC, Reedie, who is an IOC vice-president, said improvement was needed because "it is important to have a robust compliance system" and that certain parts of the anti-doping system needed revision.

"I like to believe all of the system is not broken," Reedie said. "Part of the system is broken. We should start trying to identify those parts that need attention."

But Reedie also said there was acceptance of a problem in Russia and that "it is absolutely essential we cannot have the biggest country in the world non-compliant on a permanent basis. Let's see if we can get back to a little more normality."