Officials from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) will speak to senior figures in British Athletics this week after questioning Mo Farah for five hours about his coach, Alberto Salazar, on Saturday morning.
Among those who are expected to be interviewed are British Athletics performance director Neil Black and the organisation's head of endurance, Barry Fudge, both of whom worked closely with Salazar since Farah joined the Nike Oregon Project in the autumn of 2010.
Salazar was accused in a BBC Panorama documentary last month of a series of doping violations – including giving Farah's training partner Galen Rupp the banned steroid testosterone as a 16-year-old – but issued a forceful 12,000-word riposte denying all charges. There are no suggestions Farah has committed any wrongdoing.
In a pre-arranged meeting at London’s Grange Tower Bridge hotel, Farah told the Usada investigator Bill Bock, who helped bring down Lance Armstrong, he had never taken performance-enhancing drugs.
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The British runner, who was flanked by his lawyers during the interview, also told Bock he would split from Salazar immediately if it was shown his coach was involved in doping.
A source close to Farah said: “Mo has got nothing to hide and he has always been happy to talk to Usada. The meeting was arranged several weeks ago.” It is understood Usada officials were happy to accommodate Farah’s request to speak to them before he flew to his training camp in Font Romeu on Saturday, where he will put the finishing touches to his preparations for the world championships in Beijing next month.
Another source close to the investigation said Farah was “just one of many in British Athletics who would be talking to Usada over the coming days”, and those figures will almost certainly include Black and Fudge. There is no suggestion either man has done anything wrong and they have always been open about the regard they hold for Salazar.
British Athletics refused to comment directly on the news Usada will be speaking to its staff but a spokeswoman said its independent review into its relationship with Salazar would be reporting its findings and recommendations in August. – (Guardian Service)
