‘I’m a normal guy who just beat four-time Olympic legend’
The shop assistant who beat London 2012 hero Mo Farah on Monday talks of his plans for his new-found success
At the corner of a busy junction in Surbiton, south London, athletics’ unlikely man of the moment crosses the road hastily scoffing a sausage roll he has just bought from the supermarket. It has been an unexpectedly busy day and he is running slightly behind schedule. The dinner of champions will have to wait.
After the mind-boggling madness of Monday, it is back to the Tuesday day job of leading a local fun-running group on a five-kilometre jaunt around a park near the running shop where he works.
The entire spectrum of fitness standards is here, from the enthusiasts with Garmin watches strapped on their wrists to the eager backmarkers content to bring up the tail. So far, so normal.
But look carefully amid the fluorescent running tops, and there is a police community support officer at the back, stationed to keep on top of any excess crowds that might appear. As it turns out, their job proves to be redundant, but no one really knew what to expect tonight. Everything in Ellis Cross’s world is so unpredictable right now.
When he stood on the start line of the Vitality London 10,000 on Monday, Cross was, by his own admission, a nobody. Rejected in his entry to join the elite race, he instead paid the £37 entry fee and lined up with the rest of the club runners.
Cross, 25, had already proved himself to be a talent – a few years ago he was twice crowned English cross-country champion, earning himself a British Under-23 crosscountry vest in the process.
But his running trainers were now two years old and his bib betrayed his anonymity by displaying his number rather than the name worn by the elite contingent. No one, least of all him, expected what happened next.
“I’m just a normal guy and I beat a four-time Olympic champion,” he says, polishing off the sausage roll and succinctly summarising one of the biggest upsets in recent athletics history, having consigned Sir Mo Farah to second place and potentially ended his elite career in the process. “It’s unbelievable, really.”
A short while later, I am enjoying the same view that Farah had a day earlier. Completing a few laps of Alexandra Park, I have placed myself a step or two behind Cross, perfectly in his slipstream and poised to pounce if the chance arises.
Sat on Cross’s heels in the closing stages of Monday’s race, Farah must have thought exactly that while waiting to pass him with a surge that never materialised.
From the moment Cross went over the finish line, every second has been a whirlwind.
“All the elites had their presentation gear and their bags were transported to the finish,” he recalls. “I finished and I literally only had my club vest that I raced in.
‘Mo Farah’s kit had been left at No 1, so I had to move it out of the way. It was all a bit awkward’
“I walked over to the presentation bit and Mo Farah’s kit had been left at No 1, so I had to move it out of the way. It was all a bit awkward.
“When we were done, I had to walk all the way back to the kit store. It was literally the last bag there sitting all by itself.”
After the same commute home that had taken him to the start line earlier in the morning – a train followed by a few stops on the Underground – he headed to the local pub to celebrate with a burger and a few beers. “And a couple of shots of sambuca,” adds his best friend, who has also become his agent overnight.
Up early to film for BBC Breakfast, much of the day has passed in a haze of radio and television shows desperate to hear from sport’s newest hero. I tell him that on my drive over, one radio station was using his success as an excuse to ask listeners for stories of occasions when they had defeated celebrities. Cross laughs. Nothing surprises him any more.
Looping round Alexandra Park at around half the speed he ran to triumph a day earlier, he happily fields questions from those he is leading. “Did he ever expect to win?” “How did you celebrate?” “Have journalists stopped hounding you yet?”
The novelty of being led around by a man who has just beaten Britain’s most famous athlete is not lost on any of them.
The ambition is that this soon becomes a thing of the past. Cross is, he acknowledges, highly unlikely to become an Olympic champion. But his goal, and that of his new agent, is to use this success as a springboard to turn professional. “I’m hoping that it isn’t going to be a one-off,” he says. “I’m hoping it becomes a snowball and continues. The dream is to be a full-time athlete.”
There remains an understandable sense of embarrassment about everything that has taken place. Without Farah, none of this would be happening right now. But while one of them has shifts at the Surbiton running shop to fulfil this week, the other has already been lined up to star alongside other A-list celebrities in Soccer Aid.
“The one thing I am wary about is disrespecting Mo, because he’s the greatest there has ever been,” says Cross. “I do feel a little bit bad for him. He’s a legend, and if he is to walk away from the sport, he’s always going to be a legend.
“Racing him, in itself, was a big deal. But if the favourite won every time it would be quite boring. For me, as the underdog, to win is great.”
At the end of our run, the group reconvenes at the Alexandra Park gate. “It felt like everyone was trying a bit harder tonight,” says one person. “It wasn’t the night to show yourself up,” says another.
The man with the sausage roll has inspired them all.