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Mo Farah splits with controversial coach

Mo Farah has split with long-time coach Alberto Salazar because the British Olympic and world champion wants to move back to London.

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Source: AAP


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Britain's Olympic and world champion Mo Farah has split with long-time coach Alberto Salazar because he wants to move back to London with his family, he said in an interview on Monday.

Distance great Farah, who moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011 to work with Salazar, said the decision had nothing to do with doping allegations surrounding the coach, which have been denied.

"I'm not leaving the Nike Oregon Project and Alberto Salazar because of the doping allegations," Farah, 34, was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper's website.

"This situation has been going on for over two years, if I was going to leave because of that I would have done."

In February, Salazar denied administering banned supplements to his athletes and issued a firm rebuttal of what he said were false allegations against him in a British newspaper.

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The Sunday Times reported that American Salazar had used prohibited infusions of supplements to improve the performance of his runners, citing what the newspaper said was a leaked United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report.

Farah, who was born in Somalia and moved to Britain at the age of eight, won 5000m and 10,000m gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics as well as six world titles in those distances.

He ended his track career this year to concentrate on road running and will now work with Gary Lough, who previously coached his own wife and women's marathon world record holder, Britain's Paula Radcliffe.

After his stellar track career, Farah is looking forward to improving his marathon times starting with next year's London Marathon in April.


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