Farah pulls clear of Ali Kaya, the naturalised Turkish runner formerly known as Stanley Kiprotich Mukche of Kenya in the final 100m to win the fourth European track title/XINHUA
LAUSANNW, June 26 – Under-fire double Olympic champion Mo Farah will run in the 5,000m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on July 6 as pressure on his coach Alberto Salazar over alleged doping offences mounts.
Salazar and Farah categorically deny any wrongdoing, and in an open letter on Wednesday, the Cuban coach refuted BBC documentary allegations he helped runners use banned substances.
“I will never permit doping,” Salazar said in his letter. “I have not and will not condone any athlete I train using a banned substance and would never encourage any athlete to use a banned substance.”
Farah, who won the 10,000m and then the 5,000m at London 2012, had not been due to race until July 17 in Monaco but requested permission to run in Lausanne.
One of Britain’s top sports stars, Farah said he had been emotionally and physically drained by the allegations and pulled out of the Birmingham Diamond League meet on June 7, three days after the documentary was first aired.
“I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs in my life and I never will,” said Farah at the time. “I have taken hundreds of drug tests and every single one has been negative,” the Somali-born Briton said.
Salazar, under whose guidance Farah has won five global titles over 5,000m and 10,000m, is head coach at the prestigious Nike Oregon Project in Portland and an “unpaid consultant” for UK Athletics.
Farah has said he intends to stand by his coach unless he is proven to have done wrong.
