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Alberto Salazar’s ban leaves Mo Farah and UK Athletics with questions to answer | Sean Ingle

There is no evidence that Mo Farah cheated – but sometimes people are judged by the company they keepShortly after revelations first surfaced about Alberto Salazar being investigated by the US Anti-Doping Agency in 2015, I asked a UK Athletics contact whether they feared reputational damage if he was ever convicted. “Of course,” came the reply. “But we’ve gone all in on Alberto and Nike.” Long past the witching hour in Doha on Monday night, that decision came back to haunt them. And with the legendary American coach now banned for four years for “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct”, UKA now looks desperately short of chips.After all it was Neil Black, UKA’s performance director, who used to travel at...

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Alberto Salazar and Mo Farah still have many questions to answer | Sean Ingle

Allegations about the American coach are not going away, which means both he and Farah must engage more fully with those who are challenging themThe last time I spoke to Alberto Salazar, in a hotel lobby in Beijing, he offered some simple financial advice. “You should put your money on me being cleared,” he said, smiling. “It’s a winning bet.” That was in August 2015, in the midst of a blizzard of allegations and an investigation by the US Anti‑Doping Agency against him. Yet 18 months later he remains in limbo, neither damned or saved, still awaiting his fate. And there, right beside him, stands Sir Mo Farah and British Athletics.Who would have predicted this in June 2015, when the allegations...

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