LONDON: UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is to join its counterpart in the US by investigating allegations that Mohamed Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar has violated anti-doping rules.

Last week, American Salazar issued a lengthy response to a series of claims made by the BBC television programme Panorama, in association with the US website ProPublica, earlier this month.

The coach, who guides Britain’s double Olympic champion Farah and London Games 10,000 metres silver medallist Galen Rupp of the US, has denied any wrongdoing.

“WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) has confirmed USADA and UKAD are investigating the relevant allegations in the recent Panorama programme,” UKAD chief executive Nicole Sapstead said on her organisation’s website on Monday.

“As with all of our on-going investigations UKAD will not disclose any details, to protect the privacy of everyone involved, and so we do not undermine our own operations of deterring and detecting doping in sport.

“We will follow our usual procedure, if a prosecution is brought we will publish the outcome on our website once due process [including any appeals] has been completed,” UKAD explained.

“However, if at the end of the investigation there is no resulting prosecution, UKAD will not publish the details. This is because we have a duty to protect the rights of those involved.”

The announcement by UKAD was welcomed by UK Athletics.

“UK Athletics said at the outset that all those making allegations should take their evidence to the relevant anti-doping authorities so we obviously welcome this decision,” it said in a statement.

“We call on UKAD and other investigating bodies to make public the full findings of their investigations in order to enable full and public transparency.”

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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