by Larry EderThe fields at Lausanne just get better and better! In this piece, Chris Chavez, who is covering many of the meets in Europe for us, wrote this piece on Mo Farah and his record against the deepest field of the summer so far!
The month of June was not an easy one for double Olympic champion Mo Farah, whose coach Alberto Salazar was at the center of doping allegations in a report by BBC and ProPublica. Farah was not accused of any cheating in the report, but the media certainly has painted a “guilty by association” picture of the British star.
Farah withdrew from the Birmingham Diamond League meeting on June 7 to confront his coach and seek his own answers behind the allegations. The result? Farah stands by Salazar and has no intentions to leave the Nike Oregon Project unless the allegations are proven to be true.
Farah then went to seclusion and started training in the mountains of France under the watchful eye of a United Kingdom Athletics official. This weekend, he returns to action for the first time since the allegations were revealed with a 5,000-meter race in Lausanne.
Seven Kenyans and seven Ethiopians will take their crack at defeating Farah on the Diamond League circuit at the distance for the first time since the 2013 Prefontaine Classic. Among the most anticipated face-offs includes Farah vs. Caleb Ndiku, who will open his 2015 season after a minor injury set-back.
Six of last year’s top ten 5,000-meter runners star in the race, headed by Muktar Edris of Ethiopia with a personal best of 12:54.85. Four men in the race (Yomif Kejelcha, Hagos Gebriwhet, Imane Merga and Thomas Longosiwa) have already broken 13-minutes on the year. Farah has not done that since 2012, when he ran 12:56.98 at the Prefontaine Classic.
History has proven that a tactical race will play into Farah’s favor as well as a fast-paced race. The last few years have provided several failed attempted by the Africans to defeat Farah. Lausanne will provide another hypothesis test to try out a new gameplan and then bring their revision and what works to Beijing.
Here is how Farah has stacked up against the field:
Mo Farah vs. the field over 5,000-meters:
Farah vs. Alamirew 7-0 (9-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Ayalew — never faced before
Farah vs. Edris 1-0
Farah vs. Gebriwhet 3-0 (3-1 over all distances)
Farah vs. Hiss Bachir — never faced before
Farah vs. Haji — never faced
Farah vs. Iguider 1-0 (1-1 over all distances)
Farah vs. Karoki 0-0 (2-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Kejelcha 0-0 (1-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Kipsiro 4-7 (10-11 over all distances)
Farah vs. Kombich 0-0 (2-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Longosiwa 8-1 (13-1 over all distances)
Farah vs. Mead 1-0 (3-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Merga 3-4 (7-8 over all distances)
Farah vs. Ndiku 0-0 (1-0 over all distances)
Farah vs. Soi 3-4 (4-12 over all distances)
Farah vs. Tamire — never faced
Farah vs. Vernon 4-0 (14-0 over all distances)
