Farah coach whistleblower to cooperate with Athletics UK

Farah (extreme left) with Salazar(C) and Galen Rupp at the 2012 London Olympics

Following a BBC Panorama investigation into allegations of doping by eminent athletics coach Alberto Salazar, the whistleblower at the centre of the investigations, Steve Magness, has told the media that he will fully cooperate with Athletics UK. Magness was personally chosen by Salazar to be his second-in-comman at the Nike

Athletics UK have intervened due to the fact that British athlete Mo Farah, the currently reigning Olympic champion, is also coached by Salazar.

Magness told the BBC during the investigation that he had seen documents proving that American elite athlete and Olympic champion Galen Rupp had been regularly doping under Salazar’s instructions since he was in high school, from the age of 16. According to Magness, his bloodwork showed he had been taking testosterene to enhance his performance:

“Under one of Galen’s it had ‘currently on testosterone and prednisone medication’ and when I saw that I kind of jumped backwards,” said Magness. “Testosterone is obviously banned and everyone knew that. It was all the way back in high school – and that was incredibly shocking. At that point I actually took a picture of it. I wanted to essentially have evidence in case something happened.”

Rupp and Salazar both rubbished all allegations, as has Farah. Athletics UK have so far defended Farah, and aver that there is ‘absolutely no evidence’ to suggest Farah is involved in doping.

For their part, UK Athletics, via chief Ed Warner, implied they would assist whole-heartedly in investigations, and is speaking to the UK Athletics performance oversight group.

The group, which comprises former athletes Jason Gardener, Dr Sarah Rowell and Anne Wafula Strike is primarily involved in investigating the relationship between Farah, UK Athletics and Salazar.