I’m clean! Mo hits out in new drugs row
OLYMPIC champion Sir Mo Farah yesterday insisted he was ‘a clean athlete’ after fresh accusations linked his coach to banned drug use.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist said he had ‘never broken the rules’, despite persistent questions over his coach Alberto Salazar’s alleged misuse of prescription medicines and drug infusions.
A leaked report from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) claimed Farah and other athletes coached by Salazar were given infusions of a chemical supplement, said to offer potential performance-boosting effects.
Farah, 33, the Olympic champion over 5,000m and 10,000m, was also said to have been among athletes given legal prescription drugs without a justifiable medical reason. He and Salazar both deny they have ever broken anti-doping rules.
Farah told his Twitter followers he was ‘annoyed’ that he had to address doping claims again, after they appeared in a USADA report passed to The Sunday Times by a suspected Russian hacking group.
He said: ‘It’s deeply frustrating. I am a clean athlete who has never broken the rules in regards to substances, methods or dosages and it is upsetting that some parts of the media, despite the clear facts, continue to try to associate me with allegations of drug misuse.’
The USADA report said Salazar, 58, had boasted of the ‘amazing’ results for athletes given infusions of a research supplement based on the chemical L-carnitine.
He emailed Lance Armstrong before the cyclist was revealed to be a drugs cheat, saying: ‘Lance call me asap! We have tested it and it’s amazing!’
L- carnitine is not banned but there are strict limits on its use, and the USADA report said infusions given by intravenous drip to six American runners training with Salazar ‘almost certainly’ broke anti-doping rules.
It said Farah was given an infusion of L-carnitine before the London Marathon in 2014, but the amount was not stated. UK Athletics said it believed all doses administered were in accordance with guidelines. Somali-born Farah said two years ago that he had tried a legal energy drink containing L-carnitine but he ‘saw no benefit’ and did not continue with it.