Farah in the clear to stay with Salazar
UK ATHLETICs are set to back Mo Farah’s decision to remain with coach Alberto salazar, despite the American admitting he engaged in highly controversial practices within the Nike Oregon Project training group.
salazar has already admitted ‘letting his paranoia get the best of him’ after it was alleged he used son Alex as a guinea pig to test how much of the banned anabolic steroid testosterone would register as a positive drugs test. He claimed the experiment was to guard against sabotage by his ‘enemies’.
An independent review by the sport’s national governing body has so far uncovered ‘no reason’ to call into question whether this is the correct environment for Britain’s most high-profile athlete to be associated with. The review also cleared Farah of any wrongdoing.
The full findings of the performance oversight group ( POG), comprising former athletes Jason Gardener, Dr sarah Rowell and Anne Wafula-strike, will be published after the World Championships in Beijing at the end of August.
But they have confirmed their investigation has uncovered no concerns about the Oregon Project, headed up by salazar and where Farah has trained since early 2011. While UK Athletics are yet to comment on whether they will advise Farah to stay with salazar, the initial findings of the group offer no grounds for him to leave.
‘None of the extensive information supplied to the POG contained any evidence of impropriety on the part of Mo Farah, nor gave UK Athletics any reason to question the appropriateness of the input given by the Oregon Project to Mo Farah’s training regime,’ they said in a statement.
salazar continues to be used as an ‘unpaid consultant’ by UKA and regularly collaborates with British Athletics performance director Neil Black and head of endurance Barry Fudge about Farah and occasionally other athletes.
More than a dozen former Nike Oregon Project athletes and staff members have reported concerns about salazar’s practices to the United states AntiDoping Agency, which has opened its own investigation.
On saturday, the day after winning the 3,000 metres at the Anniversary Games, Farah was questioned for five hours by UsADA lawyer Bill Bock, the man partly credited with bringing down Lance Armstrong’s empire. There is no suggestion that Farah has been privy to any wrongdoing but the association with such serious claims are damaging his reputation.
Farah, who will defend his 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the World Championships, has recruited a crisis management team at celebrity public relations firm Freuds. But he has remained loyal to salazar, the man who has led him to all of his major championship medals.