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54 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 JUNE 2015 Sport FORMULA 1 ATHLETICS Mo Farah furious about Alberto Salazar doping allegations Mo Farah will not be ending his relationship with coach Alberto Salazar after saying he has "not seen any clear evidence" that the American has been involved in doping FARAH, speaking at a press confer- ence in Birmingham ahead of Sun- day's Grand Prix event, expressed his anger at the fact his name was being "dragged through the mud" following accusations in a BBC documentary that Salazar admin- istered banned substances. The 32-year-old vowed to stand by his coach - but wants answers as soon as possible, and said he would be the "first person to leave him" if it was proven Salazar had done wrong. "I'm not leaving Alberto, for the reason I've not seen any clear evi- dence," Farah said. "I spoke to Alberto (on Friday night), I got on the phone and said to him, 'Alberto, what's going on?' and he said, 'Mo, I can prove this to you - it's just allegations - I'll show you some evidence', and I said, 'Okay'. "I'm really angry at this situation. It's not fair, it's not right. I haven't done anything but my name's get- ting dragged through the mud. "It's something not in my control but I want to know answers. I need to know what's going on - if these things are true, if they're not true. If they turn out to be true, and Al- berto has crossed the line, I'm the first person to leave him." The Panorama programme on Wednesday night alleged that Sala- zar was involved in doping his ath- lete Galen Rupp, silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics behind Farah in the 10,000 metres, when the American was only 16 years of age. Salazar, who won the New York marathon three years in a row be- tween 1980 and 1982 and was also a Boston marathon winner, has worked with Farah since 2011 and has coached the Briton's training partner Rupp for 14 years. Neither Salazar nor Rupp ap- peared in the BBC programme, but both men protested their inno- cence in statements. There is no suggestion that Farah has broken any rules, and the Olym- pic 5,000m and 10,000m champion stressed he had nothing to hide. "It's just not right - it's something I worked so hard for, everything I achieved..." Farah said. "My name is associated with Alberto, and ob- viously you guys say, 'Mo, Mo, Mo this, Mo's coach...' It's not right, it's not fair and I'm angry at the situ- ation. "My reputation's getting ruined. You guys - you're killing me! What have I done? "There's questions that need an- swering. There's kids out there look up to me, know how hard I work, what I put my body through day in day out, 120 miles week in week out. "I just don't know how to explain it - it's hard. "It's like, if you guys have some- thing on me, yes, bring it - I'm happy to share anything you want to know. "But it's not about me, so please - it's about Alberto. So let's put this on Alberto. Let's see if Alberto can prove to us... Till then, there's noth- ing we can do. I've got a big race on the weekend. If I don't win, you guys will give me a hard time! "So let me concentrate on the weekend, but yes there's answers I think the public and the people are owed. They need to know what's going on, and I need to know my- self what's going on." UK Athletics performance direc- tor Neil Black added: "To make it clear, Mo is saying all of his records are available to the relevant author- ities - there's nothing Mo feels he has to hide." UKA earlier on Saturday issued a statement in which it said it has "absolutely no concerns" over the conduct and coaching methods of Salazar in relation to Farah. It read: "Following the broadcast of BBC's Panorama programme on Wednesday, UK Athletics has care- fully considered the content. "Whilst acknowledging the grav- ity of the allegations, UK Athletics can confirm it has had absolutely no concerns over the conduct and coaching methods of Alberto Sala- zar in relation to Mo Farah or in his role as an endurance consultant." It added, however, that its board had met and put in place a group to undertake a "focused review of the performance management system surrounding Mo Farah and the en- durance programme, engaging rel- evant independent experts where required". The review will begin immedi- ately, and has been "welcomed and supported" by Farah and Black. The BBC programme also heard allegations testosterone was seen on several occasions by athletes and staff and that Salazar tested testo- sterone cream on a human subject, to find out how much it would take to trigger a positive drugs test. It was also alleged Salazar en- couraged the use of therapeutic use exemptions which allow athletes to use a banned substance or method to treat a legitimate medical condi- tion. Speaking at an earlier press con- ference in Birmingham, Olympic long jump champion Greg Ru- therford was cautious not to con- demn anyone before anything was proven, but expressed his wish not to see athletics go the same way as cycling in terms of its reputation for doping. "I watched the documentary and everything else, and my view on it is that the right people are look- ing into it and investigating it and everything else," said 28-year-old Rutherford. "I assume once all that's done we'll get a better picture of where everything is and what's been made of it all. "With regards to my view on it, though, I'm so far away from it I don't really have an opinion either way." He added: "Any form of drugs scandal in any sport - it's very, very bad for the sport, obviously, because we don't want youngsters coming through wanting to do the sport thinking you have to take drugs to win. "You don't want anything along those lines to make the sport look a bit like other sports, where, sadly... I like cycling, but a lot of people think that you have to be on drugs to do well in cycling. "I never, ever want to see athletics go that way." Mo Farah Hamilton takes pole in Montreal Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position in Canada as his quest to move on from his Monaco heartbreak continues THE reigning world champion beat team-mate Nico Rosberg to the top of the timesheet as the team col- lected yet another one-two. Kimi Raikkonen will start third for Ferrari, who would have wanted to be closer to the dominant Mercedes having brought an improved power unit to Montreal. Hamilton, who lost the lead late on in Monaco two weeks ago after a call to pit under the safety car saw both Rosberg and Sebastian Vet- tel pass him, had said he "could not care less" about that incident and wanted to return to winning ways this time out. He may have had a small crash in Friday's wet practice session but the 30-year-old was untouchable when it mattered, taking the 44th pole position of his career in the place where he stormed to his first. Hamilton's pole lap was his first of the final session, with Rosberg unable to get within three-tenths of a second of his team-mate's time of one minute 14.393 seconds - the German showing his frustration over the team radio as he bemoaned a "rubbish end to qualifying". On the other hand, Hamilton was visibly delighted with taking a sixth pole in seven races this season - with the 44th of his career matching the number he sports on his car. "I feel amazing today," he said. "It wasn't the easiest of days, P3 was tough and I didn't get many laps. I was going into qualifying a bit blind with the set-up. "I won my first grand prix here in 2007 and that was incredibly spe- cial, to get a pole here and for it to be my 44th in very, very special. "The first lap was pretty good, it could have been better. The next lap started off bad so there was good time in the car. It was tough out there with the tyres but I enjoyed it." Rosberg quantified his radio mes- sage after qualifying but is hoping he can get past Hamilton during the race on Sunday. "That was the best way to sum it up," he said of his comments. "I was really on a roll but in the end it just didn't come together at all - it didn't work out and we need to ana- lyse now why that was. "Fair play to Lewis and the race is tomorrow so we still have some good chances and here there are good chances to overtake so it isn't over yet. "I had a bad qualifying and we are still second on the grid. That still gives me hope. It is a long and difficult race, it is all to play for to- morrow but I'm disappointed with today." Raikkonen was the best of the rest and he will be joined on the second row by fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas after he jumped his Williams ahead of the Lotus' late in the session. Despite missing out on the sec- ond row, Lotus enjoyed an impres- sive qualifying display and Romain Grosjean was rewarded by taking fifth place, with team-mate Pastor Maldonado just a place further back in sixth. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg made it six Mercedes-powered cars in the top seven, getting ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and last year's winner Daniel Ricciardo, with the second Force India of Sergio Pe- rez rounding out the top 10. The Toro Rosso pair of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen could not quite get into the top-10 shoot- out. Sainz will start 11th but Verstap- pen faces a 15-place penalty after a combination of an engine change and punishment for causing a crash in Monaco last time out. The Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr sandwiched Fern- ando Alonso's McLaren - with the Spaniard only able to set the 13th fastest time. Three big names fell in the early parts of qualifying, although tech- nically Jenson Button did not have a chance after his McLaren rolled to a stop in free practice - leading to the 2009 world champion sitting out the session. Sebastian Vettel could only man- age the 16th fastest time after an issue with his Ferrari engine re- stricted him to two flying laps at the very end of the 18 minutes - whilst the Williams of Felipe Massa was another surprise casualty in Q1 due to his own power unit problems. The two Manors of Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens joined those three in the drop zone with the former starting ahead of Stevens having had the beating of the Briton all weekend. Lewis Hamilton celebrates pole position in Canada