by Stuart Weir
Mo Farah gutting it out. 25 laps in 27:47.04. Just not enough today, photo
I witnessed each and every 5000m and 10,000m that Mo Farah ran at an Olympics and World Championships. I also watched him win the 5000m and 10,000m at the 2014 European Champs in Zurich.
Mo Farah thanking his fans, June 25, 2021, photo by Getty Images for British Athletics
I had forgotten that Mo Farah was human.
This past evening, June 25, 2021, in London (I posted pictures early on June 26, 2021, sorry for the confusion), Mo Farah ran a 27:47.04 for 10,000m, but it was not 27:28, the Tokyo Olympic qualifying mark.
Coach Gary Lough getting high five from Mo Farah, post 10,000m, June 25, 2021, photo by Getty Images for British Athletics
The following story was written by Stuart Weir. As he noted, quoting our friend, Euan Crumbley from Athletics Weekly, that with Mo’s 27:47.04, we may be seeing the end of an era.
No final hurrah for Mo in Tokyo
You remember the context. Mo Farah, the dominant distance runner from 2011-2017 leaves the track to run on the roads but apart from one win in Chicago (2018), he does not have the same success. He decides to have one last go at Olympic glory. The GB Olympic trials for the 10,000m are held two weeks before the main trials. To get a place in the GB Olympic team Mo needs to come in the top two at the GB 10k trials and run the Olympic standard time 27:28:00. Mo finishes second in the trials but in 27:50.64. Then surprise, surprise, British Athletics announces after all that there would be a special 10K race during the British trials.
There would be 11 runners, three of their pacemakers. Ryan Gregson (Australia) led them around at exactly the right place. When he stepped aside another Aussie, David McNeil, took them on to beyond halfway, just inside the required time. Mo’s training partner, Bashir Abdi (Belgium), led to 6,400 but when he dropped out Mo was on his own. By the time he reached 8,000, he had dropped behind the required pace by about 10 seconds. He finished at 27:47:04.
Mo said afterward: “”Oh, my goodness. I don’t know what to say. You go out there and give it your all and that’s what you have. At one point it was quite windy and I tried to push and push but I was on my own [at the end]. It was amazing to have a crowd. Giving your all is all you can do as a human being and that’s what you have. I’ve had a wonderful career and I’ve been very lucky to have that. I’m grateful for that today. Tonight showed it wasn’t good enough. I don’t know what is next for me. If I can’t compete with the best then why?”
The simple answer to the “Why” question is that he is now 38 and that it is almost 4 years since he last ran track 10K. It was just too much to ask. For Athletics Weekly, Euan Crumley wrote: “This had all the hallmarks of the end of an era”.
When the special 10K was announced Liz McColgan asked if there would be a special high jump competition if one of our high-jumpers needed the Olympic standard? This week, Jake Wightman said that he was quite comfortable with the special arrangement, commenting: “look what he’s done in the sport, double Olympic champion, you want to give him the best chance”.
Jake added: “I was in Flagstaff when he was there. I only saw him do one session and I’ve never seen him train before. But it was mad, as good as anything he’s ever done. I was telling everyone how good he looked but because of whatever problems we had before, it didn’t happen. The pressure is on him now to come out on Friday and blow people away. Given the form he was in when I saw him, he can definitely come back as classic Mo. Because Mo could come out and win or medal that to be such a great story for British Athletics. I hope he’s had unbroken training in the last few weeks to get him in the shape he needs to be in. What happens this weekend will determine whether he can still do it or not. I think he’ll be OK. I grew up with Mo as the icon in the sport so I’m really hoping he can do it.
“If he doesn’t, there are going to be big questions about whether they should have given him another shot. People will question that. But I’m excited to see it and I think he can come out and do it and if not, he will recognize that it was a step too far, a challenge that was too tough.
It certainly produced an exciting end to Day 1 of the trials but, as Euan said, it looked like the 1000 people in the stadium were witnessing the end of an era.
