A BBC Panorama documentary has implicated Farah's coach Alberto Salazar in a doping scandal
Saturday, June 06, 2015
In an ideal world for British athletics the build-up to Sunday's Birmingham Diamond League would focus on the sport’s bright young thing Dina Asher-Smith running for the first time since breaking the national women’s 100metres record two weeks ago.
Asher-Smith, only 19 but an intelligent and engaging ambassador for the sport, tried valiantly to keep things upbeat.
‘I’m still smiling,’ she said, but few in the room were. UK Athletics employees nervously fielded questions about how the organisation would respond to allegations in a BBC documentary that Alberto Salazar, who they use as a consultant and coach to the country’s most successful athlete Mo Farah, was privy to the doping of another of his athletes.
Mo Farah will compete in his first outdoor UK event this year at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham
A BBC Panorama documentary has implicated Farah's coach Alberto Salazar in a doping scandal.
ALBERTO SALAZAR
Three consecutive victories in the New York City marathon saw Salazar become one of the most respected figures in US athletics. Born in Cuba, the now 56-year-old migrated to America with his family as a child and was given his first taste of track and field at his secondary school in Massachusetts.
He won the first of back-to-back titles in the New York City marathon in 1980 and required six litres of water through intravenous drip when he ran himself unconscious in 1982.
He was gold-medal favourite for the 1984 Olympic marathon, but finished 15th.
Salazar became a coach who used the latest scientific techniques. As well as training his long-distance runners, he was a marathon pacesetter for cyclist Lance Armstrong.
MO FARAH
The Team GB middle-distance runner shot to fame after his double gold medal-winning performance at the 2012 Olympics. His 'Mobot' celebration became one of the iconic images of the London Games and he is now one of the most recognisable competitors in athletics. The 32-year-old finished third in the 2013 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards and is close friends with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
Born in Somalia, Farah moved to London aged eight and now resides in Oregon. His first major medal was the 5,000m silver at the 2006 European Athletics Championships. He has since been crowned 5,000 and 10,000m champion at European, World and Olympic level. Farah broke the two-mile indoor world record in February this year.
Aside from a non-committal two sentence statement, the body which oversees the sport in Britain has remained silent on the issue, refusing to comment on whether they will continue to work with Salazar, despite the urging of several high-profile athletes to sever ties with him immediately.
The renowned coach was expected to fly into Britain from his home in the US state of Oregon overnight, ready for showdown talks about his future with UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner.