European Athletics (EAA) – News – Mo Farah: I’m confident that I can close the gap on the Africans

Mo Farah, Great Britain’s 2010 European Athletics Championships 5000m and 10000m champion, will have his first cross country race of the winter – and his first outing of 2011 – at the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country in the Scottish city’s Holyrood Park on 8 January.

Farah has been training in Kenya in recent months and skipped the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal, on 12 December – won for the ninth time by Ukraine’s Sergey Lebid – as he is aiming at the indoor season and taking a tilt in the summer at the European 5000m record of 12:49.71 held by Belgium’s Mohammed Mourhit since 2000.

“I’ve enjoyed a lot of success in 2010, particularly on the track, and I want to build on that next year. I’m looking forward to returning to compete for the Aviva GB and Northern Ireland team in Edinburgh, alongside the boys that did a good job for us out at the European cross.

“Training is going so well, I’m confident that I can close the gap on the Africans,” commented Farah.

“However, I only got married in April and it’s hard being away from my wife and family,” he admitted.

The Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team take on the USA and a European select team at the venue of the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in a special 8km cross country match and the event is also an IAAF Cross Country Permit Meeting.

Nine athletes per team will compete in the International Team Challenge, the event also being an IAAF Cross Country Permit Meeting with the first six home scoring.

Also in the British team is Chris Thompson, who will also be running his first cross country race of the winter after taking the silver medal behind Farah over 10000m in Barcelona.

Farah’s first race since returning from Kenya at the end of last month was on Friday night at the 36th edition of the famous BOclassic, the international New Year's Eve Run in the Italian Tyrol town of Bozen/Bolzano.

Showing already that he can mix it with the very best in the world, Farah just lost out to Ethiopia’s Imane Merga, the winner of 2010's Samsung Diamond League Trophy for 5000m over 10km on the roads.

Merga crossed the line in 28:32 with Farah just two-tenths behind after a thrilling duel over the second half of the race, watched by around 15,000 people who lined the 12.5km circuit around the town centre.

“I wanted to improve on my third place from last year and I succeeded in that. But, to be honest, I wanted to win and I was so close. It's a pity but Merga is also a world class runner. I thought I'd won, but Merga just held me off at the finish,” reflected Farah, after the sprint for the line.

European Athletics (EAA) – News –