British track team boss who defended Salazar to leave job

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:56 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) — The British track and field federation says its performance director, who defended now-banned coach Alberto Salazar's work with the team, is leaving his job.

UK Athletics says Neil Black will leave at the end of the month.

Black will continue working with four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah at the Chicago Marathon this weekend, the British federation says.

Farah won his distance-running gold medals while working with Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project (NOP), which has been tainted by the coach's doping case.

Salazar was banned for four years during the world championships last week, in a case prosecuted by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency over several years.

The coach was found to have trafficked testosterone and falsified athlete medical records.

Black defended Salazar's work as a consultant to the British team after a BBC investigation of NOP was broadcast in 2015.

Though the U.S. investigation did not directly implicate any runners, the International Olympic Committee has asked for clarity about which athletes were involved and if Olympic results could be affected.