MADRID (AP) Lawyer Manuel Quintanar has been hired as the new director of Spain's anti-doping agency, the nation's Sports Council announced on Thursday.
The council says Quintanar will take over as the head of Spain's Sports Health Protection Agency "in a few weeks" after former chief Ana Munoz was named the council's director last week.
Quintanar is a law professor at Madrid's Complutense University and forms part of Madrid's city government.
Quintanar inherits Spain's tarnished anti-doping record that took another hit when the verdict in the Operation Puerto doping trial included a judge's order to destroy evidence that could be used to identify blood-doping athletes. The agency has appealed that ruling.
Spain's new anti-doping law passed this summer gives the agency control over testing and sanctioning athletes.
