Farah admits he lied about not knowing arrested coach

Mo Farah has admitted lying when he denied knowing a controversial coach arrested for doping offences.

Jama Aden, who had previously been photographed with Farah several times, was led away in handcuffs in June 2016 when Spanish anti-doping officials allegedly found three types of the banned drug erythropoietin and 19 pre-loaded syringes at his training group’s hotel.

At the time, Farah’s spokesman insisted, “Jama has nothing to do with Mo as an athlete or his training”. Asked about Aden at the Rio Olympics, Farah claimed he was simply a fan who had asked for a “selfie”, despite UK Athletics confirming Aden had worked as an “unofficial facilitator” when Farah (pictured) trained in Ethiopia. Farah has now admitted to not telling the truth.

“When I got asked and I said in that press conference [in Rio] and said, ‘Yeah, I know him but I don’t know him,’ that’s not the reality,” Farah told The Times.

“The reality is he’s a Somalian and I’m from a Somalian background, and I’ve known

Jama for many years. He coached Abdi Bile [a Somalian who won the world 1500m title in 1987] and I’ll never forget when he arranged for Abdi Bile to call me. He wanted to say he was proud of me, this guy Somalian people celebrate.”

Asked about Aden’s arrest,

Farah replied: “That’s disappointing. I’d now want him to stay out of my way.” In Farah’s build up to last year’s London Marathon the four-time Olympic champion was involved in an extraordinary feud with long-distance legend Haile Gebrselassie. The Ethiopian claimed it stemmed from his refusal to allow Farah to have Aden stay at the hotel Gebrselassie owns.

Farah’s spokesman responded to that allegation stating: “The claims are disputed and are an attempt (a successful one so far) to deflect the media’s attention away from the facts.”

A BBC Panorama documentary due to air tomorrow promises “fresh allegations” concerning Alberto Salazar, who turned Farah into a world-beater while acting as his coach from 2011 to 2017. Salazar is appealing against a fouryear ban from the sport for doping violations, but Farah says he does not regret refusing to leave the American’s camp when the allegations first surfaced in 2015.

“If I had realised there was going to be a problem, I would have been out,” Farah said. “But I was faced with someone who had helped me in my career, and you have the right to talk to him and look him in the eye.” He added: “It wasn’t just about me. As a single man I could have just said ‘move’. But I had four kids, three at school, my wife’s there, we’d bought a house. I’m not just going to say, ‘There’s been some allegations, we’re going’.”