UK ANTI-DOPING'S chief has admitted it is "not common" for an athlete to have two missed tests after it was revealed double Olympic champion Mo Farah was one missed appointment away from a possible lengthy ban.
It has been reported Farah, who won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres in London, missed a first test early in 2010, with another the following year. Under the 'three strikes' system, a third missed appointment would have counted as a doping offence carrying a maximum four-year ban. Video evidence submitted to UK Anti-Doping by Farah's agent Ricky Simms aiming to show the runner had not heard the doorbell may also have helped avert any possible charge for deliberately trying to evade testers.
Under the 'whereabouts' system, athletes have to register where they will be for a specific hour every day so that testers can be sure of their location. If they are not where they say they will be three times in the space of a year, then it is judged as a doping offence. Last year, there were 266 British athletes on the testing register, each of whom would have a minimum of three tests a year, and there were a total of 37 missed tests.
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) chief executive Nicole Sapstead would not discuss individual cases or reveal how many athletes were on two strikes, but said: "It is not common for athletes to have two missed tests."
UKAD's legal director Graham Arthur said any evidence of a deliberate attempt to avoid testers would lead to an immediate doping charge.
Arthur said: "If someone has deliberately not opened their door and deliberately hidden from the testers then we would take action against them for evasion, which carries up to a four-year ban.
"If they have put themselves in a place where they are not able to hear the doping control people arrive or ring the doorbell and we are satisfied they are just being negligent and not wilful, then it counts as a missed test. It shouldn't be equated with someone dodging tests. If we felt they had been wilful and didn't want to be tested, then action would be taken for trying to evade the testers."
Farah, 32, is currently in the spotlight in the wake of doping allegations made by the BBC's Panorama programme against his coach Alberto Salazar and training partner Galen Rupp. Both men have denied the claims. The documentary made no suggestion that middle distance runner Farah has been involved in doping.
The first missed test took place before Farah was working with Salazar, with the second allegedly in February 2011, after the double world champion became part of the Nike Oregon Project in Portland. Farah claimed he did not hear the doorbell when missing his second test and his agent submitted video evidence to back up that defence, it was reported.
Salazar is then quoted as telling Farah in May 2011: "If you miss another test, they will hang you."
The report publishes e-mails apparently exchanged between UK Anti-Doping lawyers and Farah's representatives in which the lawyers say: "Intent and negligence are not the same thing, though, as I am sure you have advised him.
"The simple fact with this Missed Test is that your client says that he did not intend to miss the test, but it is clearly his own fault that he did."
Farah announced on Wednesday he would return to the track for the first time since the allegations against Salazar emerged, at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on July 17.
UKAD's legal team is understood to be investigating how its emails got into the public domain.
Two of Farah's former Great Britain team-mates voiced their support for the track star.
Olympic heptathlon medallist Kelly Sotherton wrote on Twitter: "All these people who think it's easy not to miss tests. You do it for a year and see how you get on. It's not as easy as you all suggest."
And former sprinter Craig Pickering posted: "Five years ago, an athlete missed a drugs test. Only now is this non-news, news. Plenty of athletes miss tests.
"I'm not condoning athletes missing tests. Missing a test does not equal taking drugs."
