Farah’s Olympic dream on brink after missing target
Mo Farah’s Olympic hopes are on the brink after he missed a chance to qualify for next month’s Games on Saturday.
The 38-year-old was eighth at the British 10,000m Championships and now faces a race against the clock to post the qualifying time ahead of the Tokyo Games.
He finished in 27 minutes 50.54 seconds and will need to go under 27:28 by June 27 to guarantee a chance to defend his 10,000m titles from 2012 and 2016.
It was a disappointing return to the track for the fourtime Olympic champion as he made a comeback for the first time in four years having been focusing on the marathon since 2017.
Farah, who suffered his first 10,000m defeat in a decade, revealed he was battling an injury to his left ankle, but insisted it was important to try to qualify in Birmingham.
He said: “I’m disappointed with the result. The last 10 days haven’t been great, but no matter what I achieve in my career, it’s important I come out and show at the trials.
“It would have been easy not to show. I dug in deep and with 15 laps to go I was hurting hard. I had to keep fighting and digging in.
“I’ve been carrying a niggle since I came back from training. It is frustrating because I have done a lot of good work in Flagstaff.“It just suddenly came on. I have had some treatment to it and then coming back, it really flared up. To be honest, this is the first bit I have done of track in the last two weeks. It is not ideal.
“What makes us great is being able to challenge yourself and prove it. So that is what you have got to do as the next stage.
“I am four-times Olympic champion, but that doesn’t mean anything. You’ve got to go out there each race and mix it with the best and give yourself a chance.”
Marc Scott, who finished seventh to be crowned British champion, ran under the qualifying time in February to put him second on the UK all-time rankings behind Farah’s national record of 26:46.57. Morhad Amdouni took the win at the University of Birmingham’s athletics track.
Eilish McColgan, who already had the Olympic qualifying time, won the women’s 10,000m race in 31:19:21 after a fast-paced finish while Jess Judd came third behind Israel’s Selamawit Teferi to seal her place in Tokyo in a personal best of 31:20:84.