Farah’s missed drug tests ‘not common’

Double Olympic champion reported to have missed tests in 2010 and 2011

UK Anti-Doping’s chief has admitted it is “not common” for an athlete to have two missed tests after it was revealed that double Olympic champion Mo Farah was one missed appointment away from a possible lengthy ban.

The Daily Mail reported Farah, who won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres in London, missed a first test early in 2010 with another the following year. Under the ‘three strikes’ system, a third missed appointment would have counted as a doping offence carrying a maximum four-year ban.

Video evidence submitted to UK AntiDoping by Farah’s agent Ricky Simms aiming to show the runner had not heard the doorbell may also have helped avert any possible charge for deliberately trying to evade testers.

Under the ‘whereabouts’ system, athletes have to register where they will be for a specific hour every day so that testers can be sure of their location. If they are not where they say they will be three times in the space of a year then it is judged as a doping offence.

Last year there were 266 British athletes on the testing register, each of whom would have a minimum of three a year, and there were 37 missed tests.

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) chief executive Nicole Sapstead would not discuss individual cases or reveal how many athletes were on two strikes but said: “It is not common for athletes to have two missed tests.”

UKAD’s legal director Graham Arthur said any evidence of a deliberate attempt to avoid testers would lead to an immediate doping charge.

Farah, 32, is currently in the spotlight in the wake of doping allegations made by the BBC’s Panorama programme against his coach Alberto Salazar and

Mo Farah: video evidence submitted to back up claims he had not heard the doorbell when testers turned up.