LONDON • UK Athletics' former doctor has been summoned to appear before British MPs to explain why he injected Mo Farah with a controversial supplement 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 culture, media and sport select committee next month.
The Times revealed earlier this month that 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 in an e-mail by Pete Julian, the assistant coach to Alberto Salazar (Farah's coach) in Oregon.
"We're done with this stuff," he said in the message.
MP Damian Collins, chairman of the committee, said: "We want to know more about why proper records appear not to have been kept for the infusion given to Mo Farah and why he was apparently given an intravenous drip of a substance 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, which distributes funding to elite Olympic sports, told monitoring officers to be careful not to damage the successful medal-winning operation in the sport. The organisation has denied the claims.
THE TIMES, LONDON
