BRITON ANDY VERNON accused compatriot Mo Farah of telling him to “f*** off” after the double Olympic champion’s 5000m win at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne.
Farah, who had been absent from competition for six weeks following a documentary that made doping claims against his coach Alberto Salazar, clinched the victory ahead of Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha before apparently becoming embroiled in controversy.
As Vernon went to make peace with Farah following an ugly Twitter row earlier this year, the race winner is alleged to have rejected the approach.
“I went to shake his hand and he turned his back on me and told me to f*** off,” Vernon, who finished 15th, said.
“I wanted to bury the hatchet, I’m going up to Font-Romeu [Farah's base] in a few days’ time and I just wanted to end it.
“To not even be a sportsman there and shake my hand I think is pretty disgraceful, to be honest. Like in the armed forces, you salute the rank, not the person sometimes.
“I wanted to congratulate the performance. Whether we’re friends or not, I can appreciate a good performance but I get that reaction.
“With all the bad publicity he’s getting at the moment I would have thought he would try to actually make a good name for himself again but by doing that it’s not too good for him.”
Farah was not implicated in the BBC Panorama programme about Salazar’s coaching methods and has welcomed the subsequent UK Anti-Doping and US Anti-Doping Agency investigations.
He goes straight up to shake his hand like nothing has happened and he’s surprised by the result? Why’s he even sharing that with the media? He’s talking about Farah’s image in the media that needs to be repaired and he’s the one sharing this news. Someone just wants a share of the attention by the looks of it. I couldn’t care less what any other athlete thinks of him. This is just petty crap.
Aww did he hurt your ears ? :(
Mofo’ah
mo ve on ya child ..
Not huge fan of Farah even before the Salazar stuff. Vernon however is a tit. He’s just being a cry baby. If he wanted to bury the hatchet then don’t go crying to the media.
Think incident was spotted by some journalists who broke it. It’s unsportsmanlike and at odds with accepted standards within the sport. Farah’s not really answered any questions arising from the Panorama documentary either and if anything support for him just shows the general
public are mugs when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Guilty until proven innocent eh John? Although guilty of what? Nobody has actually made an accusation against him apart from the keyboard warriors who “know” he did something.
Ha!
His coach is under investigation for long term abuse of TUE system and use of testosterone amongst other substances on his athletes, with a number of very credible witnesses speaking out against him. He’s made serious improvements from what was already a high high level. He wins the Olympics in London. Nike and UKA partner up.
If there’s presents under the Christmas tree Santy must be real as well I suppose. I’d love to not be cynical on it but athletics is manky dirty at the top level at the moment and its hard take as someone who’s quite active in athletics. Farahs behaviour is just another in a snowball of events which is quite galling.
Paul, any self respecting athlete would stay miles away from a coach with a dodgy rep. The reason most can’t leave the coach is obvious.
I dont agree James. Maybe his coach is dodgy but again its trial by media for his coach too. The media are wrong about things just as much as they are right. Look I dont really care one way or the other but I just think its dangerous the way people automatically believe the press when they have been proven time and time again to be incorrect and corrupt
Fair eneough Paul I fall into the sceptical camp when it comes to any spikes in improvement. I think after Lance most would agree you can pass any testing if you don’t mess up. The temptation for most must thus be huge. If I was a clean athlete I wouldn’t be near a dodgy coach. Farah’s TUE’s and one of those missed tests stink.
The media being wrong at times doesn’t explain away the witnesses who have come out against Salazar. Strong credible witnesses. Bears some resemblance to the Armstrong case actually. The media were complicit in attacking the witnesses that time. Despite all that farah continues with him!
When you are being investigated in the states it is no joke. They tell you upfront if you lie under oath you WILL go to jail if the expose that lie after.
WGAF…