LAURA MUIR TURNS TO SALAZAR COACH
TOP British athlete Laura Muir has surprisingly decided to work with a coach at the Nike Oregon Project, even though the American training group remains under investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Muir’s coach Andy Young has confirmed that the middle-distance star is now paying David McHenry for strength and conditioning coaching, though it is understood UK Athletics are also meeting some of his costs. Young explained it was his decision to add McHenry to Muir’s support team in a bid to improve the British record holder’s performance. Young said: ‘He’s the best in the world.’ Young stressed that McHenry does not work exclusively with the training group run by Alberto Salazar, who masterminded Mo Farah’s track success and who is also under investigation by USADA after allegations from former Nike Oregon Project athletes and employees to the BBC and ProPublica in 2015. McHenry — the lead physical therapist and head strength and conditioning coach of the NOP since 2011 — has been a central figure in the Farah success story. In 2013 it was reported that he was working with Farah as often as three times a week. Young explained that Muir (right), a Nike-sponsored athlete, first met McHenry in February at the indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow. They met again during the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham last month, where Muir won silver and bronze in the 1500m and 3,000m respectively. Young said there are plans to meet McHenry again if Muir competes, as scheduled, in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, next month. He said there is no intention for Muir to become an official Nike Oregon Project athlete once she has completed her veterinary science degree next month. ‘I will remain her coach,’ he said. Salazar and those connected to the Nike Oregon Project have consistently denied any wrongdoing and Young said neither he nor Muir had any concerns about working with McHenry. He said the pair had not even discussed it. UK Athletics responded to the original allegations in 2015 by conducting their own review into Farah’s relationship with the Nike Oregon Project, concluding that they found ‘no reason’ for the Olympic champion to part company with Salazar. But UK Athletics — who last August extended their multimillion-pound sponsorship deal with Nike to 2030 — are yet to publish the details of their review, apparently at the request of USADA and their ongoing investigation. UKA’s apparent decision to endorse Muir’s coaching relationship with McHenry stunned unned athletics insiders yesterday when much was made of Farah’s claim last year that in moving back to the UK with his family he was parting company with Salazar. Last year the leaking of a 2016 interim report by USADA for the Texas Medical Board ‘concerning USADA’s investigation regarding Dr Jeffrey Stuart Brown, Alberto Salazar and the Nike Oregon Project’ raised further concerns. The 269-page report alleged that Salazar involved Brown in systemic attempts to evade and, in some cases, break anti-doping rules. Again Salazar insisted there had been no wrongdoing at the project based at Nike’sNikes globalglob HQ in Beaverton. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoingwro by Muir but the decisionde to work with McHenry couldco leave both her and YoungYo open to accusations of hypocrisyhy following criticism of her great rival Genzebe DibabaDi after losing twice to the Ethiopian in Birmingham. DibabaDiba has been shunned by Muir becauseb of her links with Jama Aden,Aden the Somali coach who remains under investigation by antidoping authorities after being arrested in Spain following a police raid that found EPO in a hotel room at a training camp he was running. Dibaba was among the athletes at the camp. Young told reporters that Dibaba’s ‘association with a certain coach is not particularly healthy for the sport’.