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      Mo Farah’s I’m A Celebrity stint backed by athletics chiefs.. as long as Olympic bid stays on track

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      ATHLETICS bosses have welcomed Mo Farah’s Jungle jaunt – provided it doesn’t damage his Tokyo Olympics bid.
      As we told you first, Britain’s most successful athlete, 37, has signed up for this year’s rescheduled I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

      Mo Farah is set to appear on this year’s I’m A Celebrity in North Wales – provided it does not impact his Olympic preparationCredit: Pacemaker Press

      The four-time Olympic champion will join campmates next month at the new venue Gwrych Castle, North Wales, instead of the hot Australian rainforest.
      Eating creepy-crawlies and sleeping in cold, damp tents is not exactly ideal preparation for Farah’s quest to defend the 10,000m Olympic title next July.
      Jo Coates, CEO of UK Athletics, said: “It’s that knife-edge decision.
      “As a marketer, to have athletes in mainstream TV shows is just perfection.

      “However – and a big however – you would never want to do that to the detriment of performance.
      “I’d imagine there have been lengthy conversations. If he is there, there will have been lengthy conversations about whether this would affect performance.
      “The fact that it’s in Wales and not as long a time is very different from many weeks in Australia.
      “Part of our communications strategy is about reaching a new audience. That’s what we have to do.

      “And shows like that take our athletes to a completely different audience. But I would never condone it to the detriment of performance because ultimately that’s what they do.”
      UKA are hopeful they will have two Diamond League meetings on the 2021 calendar, which is published shortly.
      And Coates is confident the UK Indoors trials will happen next February regardless of whether or not they are allowed fans.
      She added: “Even if we don’t sell a ticket we can still put that event on, which is fantastic news for the sport.”

      I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! 2020 line-up More

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      Police confirm body found in search for former Team GB fell runner Chris Smith who went missing in Perthshire hills

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      A BODY has been found in the search for former Team GB fell runner Chris Smith who vanished in Perthshire hills. 
      Chris, 43, was reported missing on Tuesday night after he failed to return from a run.

      He had set off on a run from Invervar near Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, at around 3pm. 
      His family, including his wife Lindsay and two children, became concerned when he did not return and called emergency services.
      It sparked a search-and-rescue operation involving mountain rescue teams, Police Scotland and the Coastguard.
      And officers have confirmed today that a body has been found near to Meall Garbh in the Glenlyon area in their search for the missing runner.

      A spokesperson said: “Police Scotland can confirm that at around 11:50am on Thursday, 29 October, 2020, the body of a man was found near to Meall Garbh in the Glenlyon area.
      “Formal identification has yet to take place however the family of missing 43-year-old Chris Smith has been informed.
      “Enquiries remain ongoing and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal in due course.”
      Smith represented Great Britain in international mountain running competitions.

      In 2016 he helped Team GB win bronze in the European Mountain Running Championships in Italy.
      He is originally from Aberdeenshire but lives in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.
      Smith is a member of Thames Valley Harriers.

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      Who is Mo Farah’s wife Tania, how many children do they have and how long have couple been married?

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      OLYMPIC hero Mo Farah is set to join the I’m A Celebrity 2020 line-up.
      Farah said goodbye to the track in 2017 after four Olympic gold medals and six world championship wins, now focusing on the road races – with wife Tania forever by his side.

      Mo Farah with wife Tania and step-daughter RihannaCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
      Who is Tania, and when did she marry Mo?

      The couple – who met while studying in London – married in 2010.
      Due to Farah’s training, they used to live in their adopted home of Portland, Oregon.
      Tania opened a’royal-themed’ luxury spa in Portland, named the British Manor Spa in May 2017.
      But they have since moved back to London – and Mo will go into this year’s I’m A Celeb following a period of isolation.

      An insider told The Sun: “Mo’s been a big fan of the show for years and was just waiting for the right time in his career to do it.
      “He obviously has an excellent level of fitness and mental focus so will be great at the Bushtucker Trials and will be a positive addition for keeping up team morale for campmates – especially as a lot of the celebs are worried how cold it will be.
      “It’s his first foray into reality TV so he’s a bit nervous about the challenges and will miss his family.”

      Britain’s Mo Farah celebrates with Tania at the Rio OlympicsCredit: Getty Images
      How many children do her and Mo have?
      The couple have a pair of twins – Aisha and Amani – born shortly after Farah’s twin triumph at London 2012, and a boy named Hussein in 2015.

      Mo traditionally celebrates his victories trackside with step-daughter Rihanna and Tania.
      Speaking at the time of the twins’ birth, Tania said: “It’s like a fairy tale. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

      Mo with step-daughter Rihanna, wife Tania, and twin daughters Aisha and AmaniCredit: Getty Images

      Mo Farah celebrates with step-daughter Rihanna and wife TaniaCredit: Instagram More

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      Jade Jones reveals Olympic village secrets from drunk shenanigans to late-night Usain Bolt parties

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      JADE JONES says the Olympic village is full of drunks and late-night shenanigans – and she once refused to join a wild Usain Bolt room party.
      In a revealing interview with SPORTbible, the two-time Olympic gold medal-winning taekwondo star gave an insight into what goes on behind-the-scenes at the biggest event in sport.

      Jade Jones has spilled the beans on what happens at the Olympic villageCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

      Jones turned down an invite to a late-night Usain Bolt partyCredit: EPA

      It seems everyone lets their hair down at some point, particularly Jamaican sprint superstar Bolt, who was in celebratory mood having scooped three gold medals.
      Though she did not specify whether it was the London 2012 or Rio 2016 Games, the Welshwoman said that everyone hits the booze as soon as their competitions are over.
      Of course, one thing usually leads to another when alcohol is consumed – and it is thought the IOC distributed 350,000 condoms, 100,000 female condoms and 175,000 packets of lube to more than 10,000 stars four years ago in Brazil.
      Jones, 27, said: “Everyone sees the Olympics all about performance and it is. But literally it’s a big party after and everyone gets drunk.

      “Everyone fights and competes on different days. I remember walking to the ring and walking to my event and literally there’s people coming in steaming, like falling over.
      “It’s so hard as you have to stay focused and not let that distract you.
      “Another time I remember I was coming back from dinner, and Usain Bolt was shouting people up to his room to come and have a party. I think it was his birthday. I didn’t go by the way.”
      Flint fighter Jones credits her ‘strict’ granddad for introducing her to Taekwondo at the age of eight to curb her wild ways.

      Legendary athlete Bolt is also famous for his party-loving anticsCredit: Getty – Contributor

      Jones said: “I was starting to be a bit naughty and cheeky and going off on the wrong path.
      “My granddad was very strict, very proper. He wanted me to go into a martial art and go in the right direction. Ever since then I have loved it.
      “I don’t think I’ve said this before but when I was ten I got caught smoking. I think I was the first ever person in primary school to get caught smoking.”
      Jones claims she would follow former Team GB boxer Nicola Adams on to reality TV in retirement but has ruled out an appearance on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
      She added: “It’s amazing what Nicola is doing. The first same-sex partnership. She has made so much history. Now she is continuing to make history.
      “Yeah, I’d love to do it, but I think I’d be better on Dancing On Ice. I prefer the more dangerous ones because I cannot dance at all.”

      Usain Bolt announces he is self isolating after taking coronavirus test but insists he has ‘no symptoms’ More

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      Christian Coleman OUT of next year’s Tokyo Olympics as world’s fastest man receives two-year suspension

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      ATHLETICS superstar Christian Coleman will MISS next summer’s Tokyo Olympics after he was handed a two-year ban for missing drugs tests.
      In a damaging day for the sport, the world’s fastest man is ineligible to compete in track-and-field events until May 13, 2022, meaning he will not take part in the rescheduled Games in Japan.

      Christian Coleman will MISS the Tokyo Olympics after a two-year ban was upheldCredit: AP:Associated Press

      Coleman’s agent, Emanuel Hudson of HSInternational Sports Management, said: “The decision of the Disciplinary Tribunal established under the World Athletics rules is unfortunate and will be immediately appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
      “Mr Coleman has nothing further to say until such time as the matter can be heard in the Court of jurisdiction.”
      The Atlanta-born athlete has a history of missing tests, having escaped a ban on a technicality in 2019 before winning gold at the Doha Athletics World Championships.
      The AIU charged Coleman, 24, in June 2020 for three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period.

      One related to a missed test on January 16, 2019, which he did not contest. But Coleman did dispute the filing failure on April 26, 2019 and the missed test on December 9, 2019.
      For the first one, it was claimed the athlete only updated his whereabouts information – he was training in the State of Iowa – after a doping officer attended his home residence in Lexington, Kentucky, and then called his mobile.
      Last December, two drug-busters reportedly “rang the bell and knocked loudly” on Coleman’s apartment door for over an hour – while the runner was out Christmas shopping nearby.
      The AIU rejected Coleman’s “impossible” explanation of events that he had returned home briefly during the allocated one-hour time period, ate a purchased chipotle, watched the start of a Monday night NFL game, and then went out again.

      The AIU say receipts showing he had bought 16 items from Walmart disproved his claims he had popped home.
      At the time of his provisional suspension, Coleman had complained that the AIU’s doping control officers had not called him on that night weeks before Christmas.
      The AIU said in its judgement that doping control officers were not required to phone athletes.

      The AIU report said: “The consequences for athletes who are subject to three missed tests are draconian.
      “But rather than learn from his experience with USADA, the athlete’s attitude to his obligations can fairly be described as entirely careless, perhaps even reckless.
      “We understand that it is very difficult for a young man, blessed with the prodigious talent which the athlete obviously has, to find himself suddenly at the centre of the public gaze.
      “But success of this nature, and the financial rewards that follow, also give rise to responsibilities that must be taken seriously and observed.”
      Coleman, who maintains his innonence, has never failed a drugs test and the report added that there is no evidence that he has doped during his career.
      It added: “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no suggestion that the athlete has ever taken any prohibited substance and we wish to make that clear at the outset.”
      According to emails sent by his lawyer to USA Today, it is understood Coleman will appeal the ban imposed by the Athletics Integrity Unit through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
      But unless he wins that case he will sit out the Olympics next summer, opening the door for a potential British runner to win a medal.

      Christian Coleman wins mens 100m final at the World Athletics Championships with a time of 9.76 seconds More

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      Seb Coe will back any athlete that takes a knee at Tokyo Olympics in support of Black Lives Matter movement

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      SEB COE would support any athlete who takes a knee on the Tokyo Olympics podium.
      Pressure is mounting on the IOC to change its Rule 50 which prohibits any form of demonstration at the Games.

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      Seb Coe is the highest-profile sports figure to call on the IOC to change its no-protest ruleCredit: Rex Features

      It is thought many stars might use the global platform to promote the Black Lives Matter movement next summer.
      Global Athlete and the BOA’s Athletes’ Commission have also called on Olympics chiefs to allow human-rights activism next year.
      And now Coe, in his capacity as the World Athletics president, has backed anybody thinking of protesting.
      Speaking on a trip to the Japanese capital and inspection of the Olympic national stadium, Coe said:

      “I’ve been very clear, if an athlete wishes to take a knee on a podium, then I am supportive of that.
      “Athletes are a part of the world and they want to reflect the world they live in. For me, that is perfectly acceptable.”
      Coe, who only became an IOC member in July, is the highest-profile administrator to demand a change.
      His big pal, Daley Thompson, told SunSport in June that British athletes should be allowed to take a knee against racism in Tokyo.

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      Colin Kaepernick, formerly of San Francisco 49ers, took a knee in 2016 to protest against police brutality and racial inequalityCredit: AP:Associated Press

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      Two-time Olympic heptathlon champ Thompson, 62, said: “Some athletes will clearly feel strongly enough to want to take a knee.
      “There should be, whether it’s on the podium or not, a forum for them to stand up and be counted if they want to.
      “At the same time, if people don’t want to, because they’re more interested in getting on with what they want to do, then there are entitled to do that, too.
      “It’s an important cause. All lives matter. Nobody, whether you’re white, black, any nationality, you don’t deserve to be killed for the colour of your skin or for simple prejudice.
      “I think the IOC will try and curry favour with sponsors and allow the athletes some degree of choice in the matter.”

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      George Gandy dead at 80: Athletics legend who coached Seb Coe to three world records in 41 days suffers heart attack

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      SEB COE saluted his ex-coach George Gandy, who has died aged 80 after a heart attack following minor surgery.
      Newcastle-born Gandy was a prolific endurance running coach best known for his work with athletes at Loughborough University since 1971.

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      Seb Coe has hailed athletics legend George Gandy (right) after he passed away aged 80Credit: Rex Features

      He acted as national endurance coach from 1992-98 and 2009-13 and his experience spanned 10 Olympics and five Commonwealth Games.
      Coe, an economics and social history student, worked with him in the mid-1970s and developed world-class speed and strength thanks to Gandy’s circuit training sessions.
      Coe, 64, a two-time Olympic 1500m champion, said: “George was an exceptional person and a world-class coach – for both I owe him an inestimable gratitude.
      “He has enhanced, and in many cases changed, the lives of so many young people, including mine. We have all suffered a grievous loss.”

      Gandy was also linked to athletes Jon Brown, Jack Buckner, Lisa Dobriskey, Dave Moorcroft, Steve Backley and Paula Radcliffe.
      On working with Coe at Loughborough University, Gandy previously told Athletics Weekly: “Seb arrived on campus in 1975 to study economics and politics. 
      “He had class stamped all over him with PBs of 1:53 and 3:45 and by 1977 I knew we had a potential world beater on our hands.”
      On the start of his own athletics career at St Mary’s College in south London, Gandy added: “While there (St Mary’s) I became cross-country and athletics captain and I think that was the first time I got into telling other people what to do and how to do it. 

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      “I gained a variety of coaching awards and in my final year at St Mary’s I was a member of the British Milers’ Club as a runner. They knew I was going back to the North East to teach. 
      “Somebody got in touch with me and asked if I would make contact with two young lads in South Shields with a view to continue to coach them when I went back there, so I did that. 
      “That was probably the beginning of it for me.”

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      UK may BOYCOTT Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 over alleged human rights abuses, admits Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

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      THE UK Government has not ruled out a potential Team GB boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
      China has been accused of human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

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      Dominic Raab has refused to rule out boycotting the 2022 Winter OlympicsCredit: Reuters

      Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has suggested Britain might not attend the Games in February 2022 if evidence of mass oppression of ethnic communities continues.
      Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Raab said: “Generally speaking my instinct is to separate sport from diplomacy and politics.
      “But there comes a point where that may not be possible.
      “I’d say let’s gather the evidence, let’s work with our international partners, let’s consider in the round what further action we need to take.”

      Amnesty International claim “up to one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minority people” have been sent to internment camps in the Xinjiang area and subjected to intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention and forced indoctrination.
      Raab added: “We have led the charge in the UN Human Rights Council.
      “Put it this way in the UK our concern can only be growing about the reports of what is happening in Xinjiang.

      Given the appalling human rights abuses against the #Uyghur people (a genocide), I very much welcome the Foreign Secretary’s recognition of importance of not ruling out a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing in 2022 in response to my question today at the Foreign Affairs Committee. https://t.co/as8Sf7mtm3
      — Alicia Kearns MP for Rutland and Melton (@aliciakearns) October 6, 2020

      “We want to work very closely with our international partners to give the most powerful message, whether it is in the UN or applying sanctions.

      “I have made it clear that there is evidence of serious and egregious human rights violations.
      “The more the international community addresses its mind to it, the more I think we do need to look very carefully to what action we take.
      “The concerns of what is happening to the Uyghurs — the detention, the mistreatment, the forced sterilisation — is something we cannot just turn away from. We want to gather the evidence carefully.”
      Alicia Keans, Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, said: “Given the appalling human rights abuses against the Uyghur people (a genocide), I very much welcome the Foreign Secretary’s recognition of importance of not ruling out a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing in 2022 in response to my question today at the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
      The BOA would not respond to Raab’s comments but stressed they are completely independent from government interference.
      Britain has sent athletes to every summer and winter Olympics, including the 1980 Moscow Games which were boycotted by the United States.

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      Lizzy Yarnold was GB’s only gold medalist in 2018Credit: Getty Images – Getty

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      Great Britain sent 58 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
      They won five medals in total, ranking 19th in the overall table.
      Skeleton star Lizzy Yarnold successfully defended her gold in South Korea before retiring, having also reigned supreme in Sochi four years previously.

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