MO MEDIC RAPPED

England football doctor slammed for failing to record Farah injections

THE current England football team doctor was condemned yesterday for his ‘inexcusable’ failure to record injections of the controversial and untried supplement given to Mo Farah before the 2014 London Marathon.

UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner also admitted to a parliamentary committee that it was ‘disappointing’ that Dr Rob Chakraverty had failed to log the injections of L- carnitine on the UKA medical system — as revealed by Sportsmail and the BBC — and said the lapse was a black mark on the physician’s record.

At the last hearing into doping in sport for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee, who will publish a report after the General Election, chairman Damian Collins MP pointed out parallels with Team Sky’s ‘Jiffy bag’ storm.

‘Please don’t us with the same brush,’ Warner pleaded, even though it emerged last night that UKA witnesses, including two doctors and their head of endurance, , were prepared by thehe same spin doctor used by cycling’s Sir Dave Brailsford.

Asked by Collins to compare Team Sky’s lack of records for Sir Bradley Wiggins’s medication with the Farah injections, Warner said: ‘They are both inexcusable. They are of equal concern and should have the same gold- plated standard for all athletes.’

Chakraverty, with UKA in 2014, said the amount of L-carnitine given to Farah (above) before his first marathon was well below the permitted limit of 50ml in six hours.

Chakraverty said he gave the fourtimes Olympic champion 13.5ml, though he had never previously given L-carnitine to an athlete and has not done so since. Indeed, until contacted by head of endurance Barry Fudge, prompted by Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar, Chakraverty said he hadn’t heard of L-carnitine. Collins asked if it was not ‘slightly lax’ that the doctor did not properly record the injections on UKA’s system.

‘It was disappointing,’ said Warner. ‘That’s part of Dr Chakraverty’s own annual appraisal process. If you saw his appraisal forms, that was marked by him and his line manager as a need for improvement.

‘He won’t be proud of that but he is not going to shy away from the fact it is there. But there is no “drop-box” culture at British Athletics (a clear dig at British Cycling). If a laptop goes missing there is a centralised database.

‘I’m not proud of that but it is why, as part of our Oregon Review, the second recommendation is about medical records. If we had been allowed by the United States AntiDoping Agency to publish our report you would have seen the lack of recording of L- Carnitine records right up there.’ USADA continue to investigate evidence from a leaked report that suggests a lack of proper records for L- carnitine usage is commonplace wwith Salazar athletes. Indeed, their concern is ththat his group ‘ almost certainly’ broke anti-doping regulation by exceeding the 50ml limit. Salazar and the Nike Oregon Project athletes deny any wrongdoing, and so does Farah. But the explanation that came from Chakraverty, who still works one day a week for UKA, did not ease concerns.

‘There was documentary evidence on the day it was used,’ he said. ‘I was responsible for 140 athletes. Previously (UKA) had four doctors and it went down to two.

‘Where we have lapses is when you are on the road. If you don’t record it straight away, as I didn’t in this case, then it can be forgotten.’

Collins asked: ‘Do you not think it odd Farah was treated with something he has never received before, that it should not be recorded?’

He replied: ‘I was flying out next day. It’s understandable (I forgot).’