The crisis surrounding Mo Farah deepened as the double Olympic champion was accused of letting down paying fans after cancelling his planned appearance at the Birmingham Diamond League.
Farah said in a statement that he had been left ‘emotionally and physically drained’ by the doping allegations that have been made against his coach Alberto Salazar and his training partner Galen Rupp.
UK Athletics chiefs pleaded with Farah to run in the 1500m in Birmingham, even using the fact that he would not receive his appearance fee if he did not — believed to be between £50,000 and £100,000 — in a bid to change his mind. But after discussions on Saturday night with event sponsor Sainsbury’s, UK Athletics representatives and even his own team, Farah caught a 6am flight yesterday from Birmingham via Amsterdam to his Portland home.
On Saturday Farah had presented a united
front with UK Athletics performance director Neil Black and chief executive Niels de Vos at a press conference. The trio were reacting to allegations in a BBC documentary that Salazar had been complicit in the doping of Rupp, another of his top athletes.
Farah said he had been floored by the claims but twice confirmed he would compete in the 1500m at yesterday’s meeting, which some spectators had paid £50 to attend.
By early evening he had changed his mind, informing event organisers he would be getting the next available flight to his home in America.
Despite all their pleading and cajoling there was nothing that could change Farah’s mind and he said in a statement he was going back to the US immediately to ‘seek answers.’
‘I think he should have been here,’ said former athlete and BBC commentator Steve Cram. ‘He could have moved the story on, getting back to the athletics. I think it would have made him feel better, he would have been loved here.’
Paula Radcliffe, a confidante of Farah’s in the past, agreed he should have run.
And GB sprinter Richard Kilty added: ‘I would have shown up on one leg. I’m die hard me, no matter what.’
But Farah did complain on Saturday that he was struggling with the fact his reputation had already been tainted by association with the allegations against Salazar and Rupp. ‘It’s affecting me, for sure,’ he said. ‘It’s making me think and I don’t want to be thinking about this.’
By yesterday morning Farah had issued a statement through British athletics. ‘This week has been very stressful and taken a lot out of me,’ he said. ‘I have not been able to focus properly on today’s race and after the events of the last few days feel emotionally and physically drained.
‘I want to run well in the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing and have decided it is better for me to go back to the US, seek answers to my questions and get back into training.’
The Birmingham Diamond League has been hit by a number of high-profile withdrawals. Olympic champions David Rudisha, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Christine Ohuruogu and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were all billed to appear before pulling out but none hit fans as hard as Farah’s no-show.
Sportsmail spoke to some of those paying spectators yesterday. Ian Briggs and his son Alex, from Market Harborough, paid £50 each for tickets at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium so they could ‘be close’ to Mo.
‘We woke up expecting to see Mo and are really disappointed,’ said Mr Briggs. ‘You don’t go to a rugby match and see one of the teams pull out. I thought it would’ve been better for him to be here to compete and show his face rather than run back to America and sort it out with his coach. I’m not sure how that makes it look.’
Salazar did receive some support yesterday from prominent figures in athletics. Speaking at the Sir Bradley Wiggins Hour Record event in London, double Olympic champion Lord Sebastian Coe (above) — running for president of world governing body the IAAF and a long-time friend of the American — said: ‘I have no way of knowing the veracity of what’s been said, but I do know Alberto and I’m sure he will mount a stout defence. Mo will have to make a judgement about that. I’ve known Alberto 35 years. He broke the world record in 1981. He’s a good friend.
‘What I do know about Alberto is he is a first-class coach. He is fastidious, he has got an eye for detail. He will have a minute-by-minute record on everything he’s done in training since he’s been a high school coach. Don’t run away with the idea that this is a hole in the wall, circa 1970s Eastern Bloc operation.’
Cram, who also claims to have been a friend of Salazar’s since 1980, dismissed the idea that the Nike Oregon Project where Farah trains is a secretive place. However, a request last year by Sportsmail to visit the NOP was swiftly rejected by Nike.
Farah will decide his next move after meeting with Salazar, who has promised to prove he did not approve Farah’s friend and training partner Rupp taking the banned anabolic steroid testosterone as a 16-year-old.
That was the most damning of several allegations made in the BBC Panorama documentary.
Salazar and Rupp deny the allegations and yesterday De Vos attempted to clarify the position of British Athletics after resisting pressure to sever ties with Farah’s coach. Salazar works for the governing body on a consultancy basis.
Despite a report that seven witnesses linked to the NOP have presented evidence to the United States Anti-Doping Agency already, De Vos said they were satisfied Salazar could continue in his role with British Athletics because of the confidence performance director Black continues to have in Salazar.
De Vos also told the BBC that the review he has ordered into Farah’s training set-up was not an investigation of Salazar but ‘an audit of Neil’s confidence’.
USADA have not confirmed or denied that Salazar and the NOP is now under investigation. But a former FBI agent echoed the view of Sir Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti- Doping Agency, that the investigation could yet involve the law-enforcement agency in the US; as it has in the past with Lance Armstrong and currently with Fifa.
Lisa Osofsky, the former deputy general counsel of the FBI, said: ‘The US government has made it a point to go after corruption the world over and not just in sports. If you’re a US company or if you’ve got a US connection here we will come after you.’ – Daily Mail