British Athletics steps in to back Mo Farah in Gebrselassie dispute
The fallout from the extraordinarily public feud between Britain’s most successful athlete, Sir Mo Farah, and the Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie has continued to overshadow the buildup to Sunday’s London Marathon.
On Friday the governing body of the sport in the UK, British Athletics, felt obliged to wade into the row on Farah’s behalf while two other athletes took to social media in support of the British stars version of events.
A spokesperson for British Athletics said it was satisfied that Farah had not met the controversial coach Jama Aden since his arrest in 2016 under suspicion of doping offences.
That contradicted claims by Gebrselassie, who said that the cause of the friction between the two men was due to Farah wanting to bring Aden into one of his hotels in Ethiopia two years ago. Gebrselassie said his refusal to do so had created an enduring grudge.
It was the latest development in a row sparked when Farah accused Gebrselassie of failing to properly help when his belongings were stolen at one of the Ethiopian’s hotels. Since then Farah has been accused by Gebrselassie of hitting a fellow athlete in a gym brawl and not paying a hotel bill.
On Thursday the Ethiopian athlete Sisay Tsegaye confirmed that a “brawl” had taken place at the Yaya Village hotel outside Addis Ababa, during which he was “kicked in the neck” after Farah had accused him of him and his wife, Dagmawit Kibiru, of copying his workout regime.
Farah’s coach Gary Lough insisted the four-time Olympic champion was acting in self-defence after Tsegaye threatened his training partner and Kibiru had come at Farah with a pair of 5kg dumbbells.
Yesterday two other athletes, the New Zealand star Zane Robertson and the Olympic 800m and 1500m silver medallist Taoufik Makhloufi and, spoke out on Twitter in support of Farah.
“I’ve been witness to all that’s happened in Yaya village with Mo Farah,” said Robertson. “The ‘fight’ at the gym is blown up to be more than it was. Mo’s room was broken into and his watch and money was taken. I’ve also had money stolen in the past while staying at Yaya village.” Makhloufi said that he had also had goods stolen while at the hotel.
Lough insisted the spat with Gebrselassie would not affect the Briton’s performance tomorrow. “It’s perhaps not the way I would have liked the theft to come out, but it had been really bothering Mo and no one was taking him seriously,” Lough said.
“And actually I think it is a good thing that he got it off his chest. Genuinely, there is no way this is going to affect his race.”
Race organisers are hoping for more positive coverage over the weekend with the fundraising from the event expected to pass £1bn. Last year the event raised £63.7m for charity, breaking the world record for an annual fundraising event for the 12th successive year – and even more is expected from the 41,000 runners this year.
The event organiser Hugh Brasher paid tribute to everyone who had run for charity since the first London marathon in 1981.
“It really is an incredible achievement,” he said. “I don’t think my father [race founder Chris Brasher] and John Disley [the co-founder] could ever have imagined they would inspire such an incredible fundraising effort. It’s a testament to the hundreds of thousands of people who are inspired to get into the marathon every year. It really has become an event for everybody.”
Brasher also stressed that the “greatest marathon in the world” was leading the way in pioneering sustainability measures. “We’ve got plastic bottle belts, we’re monitoring the
amount of water runners use, and we’ve got capes to give out at registration to runners who have opted to have no kitbag this year,” he said.
However last night the race was dealt another blow when Abraham Kiptum, the world record holder for the half marathon, pulled out after a provisional suspension due to an antidoping rule violation. Brasher said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on doping.”