MR INCREDIBLE WINNER MO FEELS BEAT
WEARY Mo Farah was forced to turn on the afterburners to see off his rivals at the 10km Great Manchester Run.
Britain’s Olympic and world 10,000m champion raced past Ugandan Moses Kipsiro in the final
100 metres, but then said he needed to put his feet up for a while.
Farah reckons he paid for his recent national record in the London Marathon.
“I was pretty tired,” he said. “Having competed in the marathon not so long ago, today was hard work.”
Farah (top), who was appearing in the race for the first time since 2007, took part in a minute’s silence before the race in tribute to the 22 people who died in last year’s
Manchester Arena bombing.
For most of the race, the 35-year-old looked comfortable in warm conditions, but his eventual winning time of 28 min 27 sec, owed much to his legendary finishing speed.
“I’ve got great speed and I know that at the end of the races I can use it if the guys haven’t hurt me enough, so today was a matter of hanging in there,” he added.
Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba won her third straight women’s race, well ahead of Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei.
In the men’s wheelchair race, Britain’s David Weir (above) beat Johnboy Smith and Simon Lawson to the line in 21 min 28 sec.
In the women’s wheelchair race, Britain’s Liz Mcternan was victorious in 34 min 20 sec ahead of Heather Gilham and Lucy Keyworth.
YATES admitted to feeling “a bit emotional” after producing a great solo win at the Giro d’italia.
Yates (right) attacked on the penultimate climb, 12 miles from the finish on the 109-mile stage to Sappada, and managed to stay away to claim his third stage of this year’s race. The sensational stage-15 OWEN FARRELL was hailed as ‘incredible’ after living up to Eddie Jones’ billing as a leader players are frightened to let down.
Forty-eight hours on from the England boss saying he wanted his new captain to rule by fear came confirmation from Saracens team-mate Jamie George that Farrell already does so.
Jones had gone to Saracens with Paul Gustard unsure as to whether his defence coach is about to jump ship to take charge at Harlequins. He left certain of one thing – that Farrell is every bit the player of steely influence he has banked on.
“He bosses us around, tells us where to go,” said England and Lions hooker George after Farrell’s record 27-point display in a 57-33
victory set up a win saw the 25-year-old from Bury strengthen his grip on the race lead as he increased his gap on his nearest challenger, Tom Dumoulin, by another 41 seconds.
Yates now has a 2min 11sec advantage over Dumoulin going into today’s final rest day. “When we came off the descent I saw a little gap to a few guys so I asked Jack Haig to push the pace,” Yates said. ”Then George (Bennett, Lottonl-jumbo) attacked really hard from the very bottom. I chose my moment to go. They responded the first time but then I gave everything the second time and I managed to get away.”
Yates is the first man to win three stages while in the pink jersey since Gilberto Simoni in 2003 – with Simoni going on to claim overall victory that year.
“I didn’t know that,” Yates said. “I do like the stats, I like the numbers. It’s really fantastic.
“I don’t know why but I’m a bit emotional after today. I really gave it everything.”