LONDON, (Reuters) – Mo Farah is set to defend his world 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles in Beijing against the backdrop of the most difficult and chastening season of his career.
The Briton has enjoyed plenty of golden moments on the track, back-to-back double Olympic and world championship triumphs ensuring he will go down as one of the greatest distance runners of all time.
But in June Farah found himself engulfed in a storm surrounding doping claims against his coach Alberto Salazar and he has been trying to douse the flames ever since.
Farah, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, protested he was “being dragged through the mud” after a BBC documentary alleged Salazar, who has denied the accusations, had violated anti-doping rules.
Farah suddenly found himself facing unwanted headlines, a far cry from the adulation that greeted his double at the 2012 London Games. He was so rattled that he pulled out of a race on home soil in Birmingham, saying he was “emotionally and physically drained” and needed to seek answers from his coach.
Since then Farah has been exonerated by UK Athletics who found no impropriety on his part after receiving the initial findings of a review into his relationship with American Salazar.
