The head of UK Athletics has conceded there were questions over how effectively the governing body scrutinised Alberto Salazar before he became Mo Farah’s coach. While insisting that due diligence had taken place before Farah moved to the prestigious Nike Oregon Project running group in 2011, Ed Warner admitted that he wasn’t yet sure whether it was “good and effective”.
One of the key issues is the precise relationship between Salazar and the US track athlete Mary Slaney at the time she failed a drugs test in 1996. Last weekend Farah revealed that Salazar had told him he wasn’t coaching Slaney when she tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Ian Stewart, UKA’s former head of endurance, also claimed on Thursday he “knows for a fact” that Salazar had “never coached” Slaney.
But a quick internet search suggests Slaney, who is best known in Britain for being tripped up by Zola Budd in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, did – at the very least – have some coaching partnership with Salazar. And on Friday the BBC published a tranche of articles and photographic evidence from the mid to late 90s which suggests the relationship was substantial. The BBC also quotes John Cook, who helped Salazar set up the Nike Oregon Project running group, who says: “He was certainly her coach.”
It makes for a bit of a puzzle for the head of UK Athletics to decipher, but Warner is determined to get to the bottom of it by talking to Stewart to ask what he and former UKA performance director Charles van Commenee did before Farah moved to the US.
“In the corporate world people will tell you that due diligence comes in all degrees in quality,” said Warner. “So, do I believe people did due diligence? Yes. Did they do good and effective due diligence? I don’t know. Those are two different things. I am not telling you everything from a due diligence point of view was immaculate.”
Warner also called on Salazar to publish his long-awaited response to the serious allegations made in the BBC’s Panorama programme, including that he gave the banned steroid testosterone to Farah’s training partner, Galen Rupp, when he was 16.
“The other thing is I’d like to see Alberto’s own explanation to that [Slaney] question,” said Warner. “I’m expecting a pretty detailed and lengthy rebuttal from him with a lot of things in programme. I guess we are all looking to see his answers. We’ll form a view of the quality of our due diligence when we have seen both sides of the debate.
“The longer the rebuttal is in coming the more disappointed I am because I want it out there.”
There is no suggestion that Farah has done anything wrong and Salazar and Rupp deny all charges.
Meanwhile Warner says that a performance oversight group, comprising Jason Gardener, Dr Sarah Rowell and Anne Wafula-Strike, has already begun its investigations into whether the UKA’s confidence in the Oregon Project and Farah’s training is well-founded. The group, which is also expected to make detailed explanations as to the role of Salazar’s consultancy role with UKA, will complete its review by early August.
That group will not be able to call on anti-doping bodies to look again at samples but Warner admitted he “didn’t necessarily disagree” with Daley Thompson’s suggestion that athletics should use CIR testing to re-examine Rupp’s samples to attempt to get to the bottom of the Panorama allegations.
“This is an arm’s race isn’t it?” Warner added. “I do think this is something that has been with us forever and feels like it probably will be with us forever. We have to use every tool available to us and the anti-doping authorities to fight the good fight, but it is expensive. We’ve all heard Craig Readie talk about Wada’s resources and compare them to a Premier League footballer’s wages and it is very tricky. But if these things are fundable then they should be examined.”
“I hear Seb Coe talk about establishing an independent IAAF anti-doping body and it’s a great idea. The IAAF does have pretty substantial resources and if elected Seb is thinking of carving out a chunk of those to reinforce the fight against dopers in our sport and I’d applaud him for that. There are things IAAF should do more of and diverting some of its £60m-plus of reserves to something of this sort would be very laudable.”
Warner also revealed UK Athletics had tried to persuade Farah to compete in last weekend’s Birmingham Grand Prix before he pulled out. “He was absolutely determined he wasn’t capable of running that day,” he added. “I can assure you the man and woman hours expended by UKA to try and persuade him he was in shape to run were enormous. All was tried, but it’s an individual sport and individual athletes need to make their own decisions. Ultimately of course I respect that but we did our damnedest.”
