(Reuters) – The UK Anti-Doping agency (UKAD) said it has not received any requests by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to reanalyze blood and urine samples of athletes, including that of four-times Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah.
WADA wants to investigate all the athletes who trained with banned coach Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project, one of which was Britain’s Farah, the 5,000m and 10,000m champion at both the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games.
“UKAD has not refused any request from WADA. To clarify, at this moment in time we have not received any request from WADA for reanalysis of samples we hold for any sportsperson,” the UKAD said in a statement.
“On the specific subject of the Nike Oregon Project, in Nov. 2019 we proactively offered to assist WADA in their endeavors and to date we have received no such request for any assistance.
“We have been clear that we are happy to assist any anti-doping organization including WADA.”
Farah, who stopped working with Salazar in 2017 when he moved back to England from the United States, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday that he would gladly have any of his previous blood or urine samples retested.
The 36-year-old is set to defend his Olympic 10,000m title at the Tokyo Games.
Salazar was given a four-year ban in September by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which said he was guilty of “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” as head coach of the Oregon Project.
He has denied wrongdoing and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his ban.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
