Panorama: Mo Farah and the Salazar Scandal
BBC1. Monday, 8:30pm and iPlayer.
THE last time I was asked in an emergency to fill in and write a television review, there were many (some) comments that I focused too much on sport.
Asked again to come off the bench in stoppage time, I agreed, but realised the only TV I watched in the previous few days was the British indoor athletics championships and Panorama.
It is probably best not to dwell on the BBC's consistently underwhelming athletics coverage. I was both amused and appalled when the camera cut away from the last two laps of the women's 3000m final to instead show triple jumpers casually dandering at track-side.
On Panorama, reporter Mark Daly investigated fresh allegations against Alberto Salazar, the man who coached Mo Farah to Olympic glory.
It is five years since the same journalist first revealed claims of doping by Salazar. That probe sparked a Usada investigation, resulting in Salazar receiving a four-year ban. He has rejected the findings and is appealing the ban.
There is no suggestion Mo Farah has violated any rules.
Panorama promised to raise fresh questions over the Salazar-Farah relationship, although the more interesting elements were widely reported in the days before the show aired. It was, therefore, not as gripping as I hoped. While interesting enough, the popcorn was left largely untouched.
It was reported that Farah repeatedly denied to anti-doping investigators that he was given injections of a controversial, yet legal, supplement - only to change his account shortly afterwards.
Farah rebuffed claims that two days before the 2014 London Marathon he received injections of L-carnitine, a naturally occurring amino acid. If injected straight into the bloodstream, some research suggests it could boost athletic performance.
Injections or infusions are permitted within World Anti-Doping Agency rules provided the volume is below 50ml every six hours.
Farah finished eighth in the 2014 London Marathon. The Sunday Times reported in 2017 that he received an infusion of L-carnitine.
Panorama used voice actors, to unintentionally hilarious effect, to portray the interview exchange.
According to obtained transcripts, Farah was asked by Usada investigators: "If someone said that you were taking L-carnitine injections, are they not telling the truth?"
Farah replied: "Definitely not telling the truth, 100 per cent. I've never taken L?carnitine injections at all."
He repeats the denial two more times.
Minutes after leaving, Farah then bumped into UK Athletics head of distance running Barry Fudge, who was quizzed the day before. He told investigators he got L-carnitine from Switzerland from a contact of Salazar's.
Farah then returned to the interview room and gave a different account. The transcript shows him admitting: "So I just wanted to come clean, sorry guys, and I did take it at the time and I thought I didn't."
An investigator asks: "A few days before the race - with Alberto present and your doctor and Barry Fudge - and you're telling us all about that now but you didn't remember any of that when I kept asking you about this?"
He responds: "It all comes back for me, but at the time I didn't remember."
Farah's lawyers told Panorama: "Mr Farah understood the question one way and as soon as he left the room he asked Mr Fudge and immediately returned...to clarify and it is plain the investigators were comfortable with this explanation.
"It is not against rules to take L-carnitine as a supplement within the right quantities. Mr Farah … is one of the most tested athletes in the UK, if not the world, and has been required to fill in numerous doping forms. He is a human being and not a robot."
