U-turn puts heat on UK Athletics chiefs

UK ATHLETICS are coming under pressure to act over the circumstances surrounding Sir Mo Farah’s L-carnitine injection in 2014. It emerged in Panorama last night that some UKA officials — former performance director Neil Black, former medical chief Dr Rob Chakraverty and current head of endurance Barry Fudge — had misgivings about whether administering the legal supplement ahead of the London Marathon was within the ‘spirit of sport’ before deciding to proceed. Toni Minichiello (right), who coached Jessica Ennis-Hill to a gold medal, told Sportsmail: ‘A source at UKA shared with me genuine concerns that the board are unlikely to act on this situation and that saddens me greatly. ‘The current board have ushered in a new era and culture of transparency and accountability. This is a great opportunity for UKA to put those words into practice, regain the trust of the sport and live up to its own values of communication, respect, integrity, quality, accountability.’ UKA are awaiting results of an independent review into how they handled the original Panorama allegations against Alberto Salazar in 2015, which saw Farah cleared to continue working with the now-banned coach. A UKA statement said: ‘A small number of British athletes have used L-carnitine and, to our knowledge, all doses and methods of administration have been fully in accordance with WADA protocol. The dosage provided to Mo Farah was well within the 50ml limit permitted. Full and honest accounts of the process were given in all forums. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading.’ It is understood that UKA doctors no longer use L-carnitine injections or infusions.