FARAH ON ROAD FOR TOKYO
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MO FARAH has denied suggestions that he is hitting the road for the money and says he is increasingly confident his marathon experiment will lead to the Tokyo Olympics.
The 34-year-old launches his new era as a road runner tomorrow at the Vitality Big Half in London, with the aim of taking on the full London Marathon in April and again in 2019.
Those London commitments are part of a lucrative package worth around £1million to the four-time Olympic champion, but when asked if his switch from the track was for the cash, he said: ‘No. I wouldn’t be competing if I didn’t enjoy running and the sport. If you look at every great athlete, like Haile Gebrselassie (the double Olympic 10,000m champion who set a marathon world record), they have succeeded at the marathon.’
Farah previously insisted he would never run for Britain again but, after leaving controversial coach Alberto Salazar in October, he accepted UK Athletics funding for the current Olympic cycle in November.
It remains to be seen if Farah can make the significant improvements needed to be competitive over 26 miles and there is scepticism in the sport over whether he has genuine intentions of going to the 2020 Games. But after completing four months of his new partnership with Gary Lough, Farah claimed running in Tokyo is ‘more realistic’.
He said: ‘I’m definitely more confident in the marathon. But I ran 2hr 8min in 2014 and the aim is to improve on that. We’ll see how it goes. London is a big one. It’s definitely more realistic.
‘I’ll still be competing at a high level. It will just be on the roads, not the track.
‘I was watching Birmingham and the World Indoors yesterday and I do think about track.
‘But my job is to get through the London Marathon and who knows? Maybe Tokyo 2020. My aim now is to be mainly mixing with the guys.
‘If you’re not mixing with the guys and being close to winning medals, it would be hard to just turn up and make up the numbers. But over the next couple of years, the aim is to learn about the marathon and get better at it.’
Intriguingly, Salazar has been in Birmingham this week, but Farah insists there has been ‘no contact at all’ with his former coach.
Meanwhile, British sprinter CJ Ujah will go head to head with Christian Coleman of the US in the 60m in Birmingham today. Coleman broke the world record at the distance with a blistering 6.34sec at the US Trials last month and Ujah is feasibly one of his prime rivals here, having won the Diamond League 100m crown for 2017.
Ujah said: ‘I’m always going to bring my A game. That’s what I expect of myself and that’s the step up. For me it’s been a good 12 months and the momentum going into this has been great. I expect to go there and challenge for medals.’ O World Indoor Championships, LIVE on BBC 2 9.45am-1.30pm and 5.30pm-9.30pm (Men’s 60m: heats 10.15am, semis 7.11pm, final 9.09pm).