I believe Salazar’s evidence, says Mo
AT LEAST SOMEONE WANTS TO HUG THE COACH
MO FARAH has vowed to remain at the Nike Oregon Project even though allegations of doping violations by his coach Alberto Salazar are mounting by the day.
‘As someone I’ve worked with for many years, I feel I have to believe in Alberto and the evidence he has provided,’ said Farah. ‘ Based on that evidence, I will continue to work with him and hope now that I can focus on what I do best — training hard to win medals for my country.’
There is an air of finality about the statement released yesterday. But there are still many questions for both him and British Athletics about why they continue to support a coach who faces allegations of serious malpractice by at least 17 independent witnesses.
Anti-doping experts also believe Salazar may have twice contravened the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) code in his statements about the possession and use of AndroGel, a controlled substance that contains the banned steroid testosterone.
In an 11,000-word rebuttal this week, Salazar confirmed an allegation that he applied AndroGel to his sons, Alex and Tony, in a bid to discover how much would trigger a positive test. He claimed he did so for fear that someone might attempt to deliberately sabotage one of his athletes by surreptitiously applying the cream.
Sportsmail understands WADA, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and officials from the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body, spent Thursday studying Salazar’s statement.
The potential issue with the ‘sabotage test’ incident is that Salazar’s sons are employed by the Nike Oregon Project (NOP) and work as support staff to their father’s athletes. Article 2.6.2 of the WADA code states support personnel are not allowed to possess a banned substance without a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) ‘or other acceptable justification’.
There is no mention in Salazar’s rebuttal of there being a TUE granted for AndroGel, only that it was prescribed to him personally for medical reasons.
‘The subjects for the experiment were my sons, who are the same approximate age as typical elite athletes and are in good physical condition but are not elite athletes subject to USADA or any other elite testing pool,’ wrote Salazar, perhaps not realising that rules can also apply to an ‘athlete support person’.
There could also be a breach in accordance with article 2.9 of the WADA code, which forbids ‘ assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, conspiring, covering up or any other type of intentional complicity involving an anti- doping rule violation’.
The anti-doping authorities are refusing to comment on the case, while Salazar denies all allegations of doping his athletes.
But British Athletics’ association with the coach, who they continue to use in a consultancy role, is uncomfortable. Their head of endurance Barry Fudge is in the French Pyrenees with Farah at his Font Romeu training camp. There are currently no other British athletes training at the high-altitude base but British Athletics insist Fudge is there as a matter of course, not at the request of Salazar.
But the American coach said he has been speaking every day to Fudge, who was carrying out his instructions and delivering the training plans produced for Farah. Speaking at the USA Championships here in Oregon, Salazar ruled out suing those who had made what he claims are ‘entirely false’ allegations, insisting he is ‘ not a vindictive person’. He added that he was ‘feeling good’.
There was no evidence the crisis had affected Galen Rupp, who eased to a seventh consecutive 10,000m national title. The American — who denies claims that he took testosterone as a 16-year-old and manipulated the system to get an intravenous drip before a race — said he had tried to convince Farah to remain with Salazar.
‘I can’t speak for Mo,’ said Rupp, ‘but I think we have had a great thing going and he’s had great success and we know we do things the right way.’ Farah risks further alienating British athletics fans by overlooking the national trials in Birmingham next weekend to compete on the lucrative Diamond League circuit.
DeeDee Trotter, a 400m runner and vehement anti-doping activist who founded the ‘Test Me, I’m Clean’ movement, reacted to the allegations with fury.
‘I think drugs in the sport are devastating,’ she said. ‘It’s a tragedy for the hard-working athletes like myself, I consider it to be similar to crime. You think we’re getting better but it’s two steps forward and two steps back, it just keeps going, this vicious circle.’