Doctor faces questions over controversial injection to Farah

Wednesday 22nd March 2017 06:28 EDT
 
 

British MPs have summoned athlete Mo Farah's former doctor to explain why the athlete was given the controversial injections a year after the athlete had been advised to stop using it. Dr Robin Chakraverty will be asked about an injection of L-carnitine he gave to the Olympic long-distance champion before the 2014 London Marathon when he appears before the panel next month.

According to the Times report, Farah was among a group of athletes at the Nike Oregon Project who were told to stop taking the supplement in 2013, a year before he received it legally via the injection. Chakraverty was working for UK Athletics at the time and is now with the England football team. Farah and UK Athletics insist that the infusion did not breach anti-doping rules.

All the athletes at the Nike Oregon Project were told to stop using L-carnitine because it did not improve performance and there was a risk of side effects, including to the heart and teeth. The advice was sent by Pete Julian, the assistant coach to Alberto Salazar (Farah's coach) in Oregon.

Damian Collins, chairman of the MPs' panel, said: "We want to know more about why proper records were not kept for the infusion given to Mo Farah and why he was apparently given an intravenous drip despite having no medical need."

The panel will also question Ed Warner, the UK Athletics chairman, and Barry Fudge, the head of endurance. Liz Nicholl, the UK Sport chief executive, has also been summoned and is expected to be questioned over claims that the national sports development body failed to act on allegations of bullying of riders at British Cycling. It has been alleged that UK Sport had told monitoring officers to be careful not to damage the successful medal-winning operation in the sport. The organisation has denied the claims.


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