Farah breaks 33-year-old British record
LONDON: Mo Farah broke the British marathon record as he came home third in the London Marathon.
Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, winner in 2015 and 2016, made it a hat-trick of victories in sweltering conditions in the capital with Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata Tola second.
Farah followed them home with an unofficial time of two hours, six minutes and 32 seconds beating Steve Jones’ 33-year-old mark.
The 35-year-old, who won gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m in the past two Olympic Games, admitted his second full marathon had taken its toll in a race where there was a world record pace at the halfway point.
“I am knackered. The guys went for it, they were on for world record pace, so it was do or die. I went with it and hung in as much as I could,” he said afterwards.”it’s so different to the track. It’s incredible. It’s different pain, different training but I’ve really enjoyed it. I gave it all, 110 per cent as I normally do.
“I’ve got a long way to go in the marathon. You get heavy legs. Mentally you’ve just got to be strong, take your drink and just pace yourself.”
Discussing his hash of collecting his water bottle, Farah added: “The drinks station was quite confusing. I went to pick it up but it was the staff. They were helpful towards the end but at the beginning someone was trying to take a picture.”
“I was saying to the people on motorbikes to tell the staff to be a bit helpful instead of taking pictures. I wasn’t wasting energy, I just needed a drink. I had to get it right.
Earlier Olympic 5,000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s race at her second attempt.
Cheruiyot came home in an unofficial personal best 2 hours, 18 minutes, 30 seconds, meaning that Paul Radcliffe’s 2:15.25 ‘mixed-gender’ race world record remains intact.
Fellow Kenyan, Brigid Kosgei, was 1 minute, 42 seconds further back. Tadelech Bekele of Ethiopia was third.
Great Britain’s Lily Partridge (2:29:29) claimed a personal best to finish eighth.