Mo Farah’s coach used banned drug infusions that ‘put runners in danger’, report reveals
Farah has always denied cheating and insisted he has never taken illegal substances
MO Farah’s coach used banned drug infusions to boost his athletes’ performance, an official report reveals.
Alberto Salazar gave Farah and five other runners at Nike’s US training camp a research supplement boosting testosterone, according to files obtained by The Sunday Times.
The infusion, based on chemical L-carnitine, was so effective Salazar boasted about it to drug cheat Lance Armstrong.
Salazar sent an email saying: “Lance call me asap! We have tested it and it’s amazing.”
One Salazar athlete given a high dosage found it as effective as illegal blood doping, the leaked report by the United States Anti-Doping Agency said.
It believes the L-carnitine infusions “almost certainly” broke anti-doping rules.
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L-carnitine is not a banned substance but infusions of more than 50ml in the space of six hours are prohibited.
USADA was still probing its use by Farah when it wrote the report last March and it is not known how much he took.
Salazar is also said to have taken “egregious risks” by persuading Farah to take high doses of vitamin D drugs.
The runner’s British doctors stepped in amid concerns about his health, the report says.
Farah, 33, has always denied cheating and insisted he has never taken illegal substances.