Category Archives: Athletics

Mo Farah’s former coach Alberto Salazar gets four-year ban for doping violations

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  • Salazar ‘orchestrated and facilitated doping conduct’
  • Farah happy investigation into Salazar has concluded

Alberto Salazar, the legendary American distance coach who guided Mo Farah to six world titles and four Olympic gold medals, has been sent home from the world championships in Doha following his four-year ban for doping violations. The US Anti-Doping Agency found that Salazar had been “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” while head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, a group that was initially set up to help US endurance athletes beat the best runners from Africa but later recruited Farah and others from around the world.

Farah, who trained with Salazar from 2010 until 2017, admitted he was happy the investigation had finally concluded. “I’m relieved that Usada has, after four years, completed their investigation into Alberto Salazar,” he said in a statement. “I left the Nike Oregon Project in 2017 but as I’ve always said, I have no tolerance for anyone who breaks the rules or crosses a line. A ruling has been made and I’m glad there has finally been a conclusion.”

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Dire in Doha: world championships ‘catastrophe’ leaves athletics reeling | Sean Ingle

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Empty seats and ghostly silence have been the sad feature of these world championships – it is a PR disaster for the sport

Moments after the greatest 10.83 seconds of her life, the British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith grabbed a union flag from her mother, Julie, and began a lap of honour to celebrate her world championship 100m silver medal. But as she trotted round the 40,000-seat Khalifa stadium in Doha on Sunday night she was greeted by banks of empty seats and a ghostly silence.

Observers reckoned there were no more than 1,000 people still in attendance, and many of them were journalists tapping away to deadline. Asher-Smith’s mother later tweeted she had seen more spectators at England Athletics’ age-group championships in Bedford.

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Caster Semenya starts ‘new journey’ after joining football team

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  • South African eyeing debut with JVW next season
  • Janine Van Wyk: ‘She has all the fundamentals’

The two-time Olympic 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya appears to be preparing for a career outside of athletics after joining a women’s football club.

The 28-year-old is currently appealing against a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which approved the IAAF’s introduction of a new testosterone limit for female athletes.

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‘No one can live without love’: athlete Dutee Chand, India’s LGBT trailblazer

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Country’s first athlete to reveal she is in a same-sex relationship on freedom, happiness and the backlash to coming out

Dutee Chand, India’s fastest sprinter and the nation’s first athlete to reveal she is in a same-sex relationship, doesn’t describe herself as gay. When the word is used during an interview with the Guardian, she breaks in. “I didn’t tell reporters I was that ... I simply said I am in a relationship with a woman,” she says.

Chand comes from a village in India where homosexuality is never talked about. Unlike urban India where there is growing acceptance among the young of notions of personal freedom, rural India remains largely entrenched in tradition, and tradition says marriage is between a man and a woman.

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‘It’s humiliating for us’: village disowns Dutee Chand, India’s first openly gay athlete

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Country’s fastest sprinter praised for courage, but family and locals say they cannot accept a gay relationship

Supporters of India’s first openly gay athlete fear for her safety after her decision to come out prompted a backlash in her home village.

Local reaction was hostile in Chaka Gopalpur, a village of weavers in Odisha, after Dutee Chand, the country’s fastest sprinter, told reporters on 19 May that her gay partner was her soulmate.

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Nurse in trousers told her London Marathon record would not count

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Guinness World Records says Jessica Anderson needed to have had a dress on to qualify

An NHS nurse who ran the London Marathon was told her Guinness World Record attempt would not count because she was not wearing a dress.

Jessica Anderson, who has been working for the Royal London Hospital’s acute admission unit for seven years, was aiming to become the fastest female marathon runner dressed as a nurse but her scrubs and trousers did not match the uniform criteria.

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Caster Semenya ruling ‘tramples on dignity’ of athletes, South Africa says

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Olympian receives strong backing from South African government and fellow athletes

South Africans have expressed widespread support for the double Olympic champion Caster Semenya, who will run her last 800m on Friday before the imposition of controversial new rules limiting testosterone in female athletes.

Tokozile Xasa, the sports minister, said on Thursday that the South African government was disappointed with the ruling by the court of arbitration for sport that women with unusually high testosterone levels, such as Semenya, would have to take medication to significantly reduce their testosterone before they were permitted to compete internationally at distances between 400m and a mile.

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Trieste half-marathon backtracks on exclusion of Africans

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Organisers invited only Europeans to draw attention to exploitation of African athletes

The organisers of a half-marathon in the northern Italian city of Trieste have backtracked on their decision to exclude African athletes from the race following accusations of racism.

“After launching a provocation that hit a nerve, drawing great attention to a fundamental issue, contrary to what was communicated yesterday, we will also invite African athletes,” Fabio Carini, the manager of the Trieste running festival, said in a statement.

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Trieste half-marathon accused of racism in excluding Africans

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Organisers say move is intended to highlight the exploitation of African athletes in Europe

The organisers of a half-marathon in the northern Italian city of Trieste have been accused of racism over their decision to exclude African athletes from the race.

Fabio Carini, the president of Apd Miramar, the company organising the 5 May event, said the decision to only open the race to European participants was to call out the exploitation of African runners.

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Mo Farah v Haile Gebrselassie: row, recriminations and what next?

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A hotel room theft, blackmail and a gym brawl are among the accusations thrown in a very public falling out between two athletics greats who were once friends

A sedate Wednesday morning press conference for this weekend’s London marathon appeared to be over when Mo Farah suddenly raised his hand and began to speak. Clearly Britain’s four-time Olympic champion had something to get off his chest. “Training has gone well, and everything else,” he said, “but there was a slight problem with my hotel in Ethiopia.”

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