Re-test Salazar runners
DALEY THOMPSON PLEA OVER DRUGS SCANDAL
DALEY THOMPSON has called for the retesting of drug test samples given by a group of athletes trained by under-fire coach Alberto Salazar.
The double Olympic champion decathlete urged the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) to retest frozen urine samples of Salazartrained runners to examine if there is any evidence they have been breaking the rules by taking testosterone.
Salazar is compiling a dossier of emails, phone call records and letters as he prepares to refute allegations in a BBC documentary that he gave one of his athletes, Galen Rupp, testosterone while he was still a schoolboy.
Britain’s Mo Farah, who is also trained by Salazar, but not subject to any allegation, has flown out to Oregon to confront his coach to see if he can provide the ‘100 per cent proof’ he has promised that he is innocent of the claims made against him by several witnesses.
UK Athletics announced yesterday they would be analysing Farah’s medical data and urged him to suspend his relationship with the coach.
But Victor Conte, who has been acting as an informant to WADA, has urged them to retest urine samples of all Salazar’s athletes at the Nike Oregon Project (NOP) from before the London 2012 Olympics by using a more sophisticated testing procedure.
Conte, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to supplying illegal steroids to professional athletes in what became known as the BALCO doping scandal, tweeted: ‘Message 4 WADA: Retest past frozen urine samples from Mo Farah & Galen Rupp 4 synthetic testosterone w/ CIR method. Do it w/ transparency’.
The CIR method referred to by Conte is the carbon isotope ratio test.
It is more expensive than the more commonly used testosterone to epitestosterone (TE) test, but more accurate says the disgraced nutritionist, who draws on the fact Lance Armstrong passed 275 drugs tests to back up his theory.
Conte said: ‘You can use testosterone in the form of fast acting gels and less than six hours later you’re down to a ratio which would be allowable using the TE ratio test. The TE test is ineffective and they are flying under the radar.
‘The US Anti-Drug Agency report on Lance Armstrong said he admitted mixing testosterone with olive oil and doing it with a wrapper under the tongue in the middle of the Tour de France.
‘They never tested him using the CIR test. They had the technology there and they just didn’t use it. I’m calling on them to use it now to give reassurance.’
Thompson responded to Conte, saying: ‘He’s one of those people who if it’s happening he might well know about it. So do it WADA.’
The BBC Panorama documentary carried allegations by former NOP employees, including Salazar’s ex-No 2 Steve Magness and endurance runners Kara Goucher and her husband Adam.
Part of Salazar’s defence, which he is expected to issue by the end of the week, is thought to centre on discrediting the witnesses and their motivations for speaking out. The 56-year-old will then address each claim separately, including one by Magness that Salazar once asked his son, Alex, to conduct laboratory tests to see how much testosterone cream would trigger a positive test.
In a statement issued to The Guardian, Salazar said: ‘Given the time and effort the BBC and ProPublica committed to making these false allegations I hope that media and fans will afford me a short time to show the accusers are knowingly making false statements.
‘I will document and present the facts as quickly as I can so that Galen and Mo can focus on doing what they love and have worked so hard to achieve.’