Mo Farah harnessed the twitter row anger that he had been feeling all week, to unleash his ability on to the track at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix at the weekend, over the rarely contested two miles event. For once he decided to dispense with his more normal tactic of outkicking the rest of the field, in order to chase a fast time, and what a time it proved to be! The world record set by the legendary distance athlete Kenenisa Bekele was thought to be beyond him, but he dispelled that theory by slashing nearly a second from the previous best time with 8:03.40, which was almost five seconds quicker than his own indoor best from 2012.
It was the double Olympic champion's first world record, indoors or outdoors, despite a much be-medalled career.
After tracking the Kenyan pacemaker Paul Koech for several laps, Farah took on the race with seven laps still remaining, sensing that the tempo was dropping. He quickly got rid of the only real danger in the event, the American veteran Bernard Lagat, to move well clear of the field, leaving the time as the only thing occupying his thoughts. That he was able to produce a sub four minute mile for the second half of the race was an extraordinary feat in itself, yet he still needed to up the pace even more over the final two laps to take the record. With the last lap taking around 28 seconds to complete, the clearly delighted Farah was all smiles by the finish, signalling his appreciation to the crowd for their vocal support during the race.
The 31-year-old former Somalian, who came to England when he was just eight years of age, had been left angered by alleged suggestions by his GB teammate Andy Vernon about his nationality. The suggestion that he should not have been eligible to compete at the Europeans last year, given his birth place, blew up over the preceding days up to the event.
Vernon in turn flatly denied such a suggestion in the aftermath, claiming that was a "huge, huge misrepresentation." Yet it clearly drove Farah on during the race, as he confirmed that "it inspired me, I wanted to do it." When drawn on whether there was a follow up message for his opponent on the track, Farah seemed to suggest that he was moving on from it, yet it will be interesting to see how they act when they next meet in a race scenario.
As if to satisfy his 'adoring' public that he believes himself to be British (after a career coming through the junior ranks in this country), Farah re-iterated that "I love representing my country, giving something back to all the people." Despite his fine current form indoors, Farah will not be competing at the Europeans next month, as it does not feature in his plans for the season.
Vernon took to Twitter himself later on to congratulate Farah on his record.
No doubt there were also many British Athletics fans and runners who would have hoped that he could have competed at the National cross-country championships, held on the same day as Birmingham, but at Parliament Hill instead. Farah is clearly only human and able to be in one place at once, but it would have been another interesting challenge for the multi-talented distance runner. In his 'absence' the senior men's race was won by up and coming 21-year-old Charlie Hulson from Sale Harriers.
