Clock-watcher Farah targets history in Brussels
FOR Mo Farah, his engagement in Brussels this evening is all about the watch. He will point to the one that determines if he collects a world record aged 37, but plenty of the subtext concerns a timepiece that was stolen last year. It is more than a mere aside that the one-hour distance record Farah is pursuing belongs to Haile Gebrselassie, an all-time great of running with whom the Brit had a row for the ages 16 months ago. It centred on Farah’s revelation before the London Marathon that his watch and other belongings were stolen at Gebrselassie’s hotel in Ethiopia and not enough had been done to help. Gebrselassie responded with an avalanche of claims, including allegations that Farah had behaved ‘disgracefully’, attacked a couple in his gym and had once tried to gain admission to the hotel for Jama Aden, a Somali coach wanted in Spain on doping charges. Farah’s team denied it, but the argument drew worldwide attention. All of which supplies a certain amount of context to Farah’s first competitive run on a track for three years. Getting one over Gebrselassie will be tough, though. The mark the Ethiopian set across one hour in June 2007 was 21,285 metres (13.226 miles), and it remains to be seen if four-time Olympic champion Farah still has enough to better it. He said: ‘It’s always nice to set history. It’s not an Olympic event but it’s a world record. Haile’s record has been there for a long time and it’ll be exciting to break it.’ Meanwhile, Christian Malcolm has been confirmed as the new head coach of UK Athletics.