European Athletics – News – Farah just misses out on Great North glory

Mo Farah tasted defeat in the Great North Run on Sunday morning but in the most dramatic and thrilling fashion.

As the rain and wind swirled around the seafront in South Shields, Europe's greatest distance runner made a valiant attempt to overtake the brilliant Kenenisa Bekele in the home stretch on the coastal road.

The formidable Ethiopian had looked out of the race after six miles when he dropped back as Haile Gebrselassie and Farah led, but he came back in style to lead by five seconds with less than a mile to go.

At the 400m point Bekele was in front but Farah, renowned for his fast finishing, moved up a gear and launched a superb bid for victory.

Pain was etched across his face as Farah edged closer, and then closer still.

With 300m left, the gap had narrowed, then with 200m, Bekele was almost in touching distance before the final 100m, where the Ethiopian, making his debut at this half-marathon distance, had enough to hold on.

The finishing time told it all as Bekele, the three-times Olympic champion, triumphed in 60:09, by a second from Farah in 60:10, with Gebrselassie third in 60:41.

But like Bekele, these are learning curves on the roads for Farah who makes his marathon debut in London in April.

"It was a great race, a great finish and when Kenenisa went with a mile to go, the pace was ridiculous," said Farah.

"I thought I could come back and close the gap slowly. I managed to close it a little bit but you cannot take away what he has. He has great speed and it came down to the last 200m and right up to the line.

"My main preparation was the World Championships and I had only two to three weeks to prepare for this race and at the same time I am disappointed to finish second.

"But I did not just finish second – I finished second to a great athlete. I am going to take a break, go on a holiday and and get ready for the London Marathon."

It has been some year for the Great Britain star.

He won double gold at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow last month, joining Bekele as the only men to hold the double-double of the Olympic and world 5,000m and 10,000m.

Bekele has been injured over the past two years but has shown not only is he is back, he is now too looking towards a career in the marathon.

It was always going to be a race between Bekele, Farah and Gebrselassie, the organisers of the Great North field delighting in being able to secure such a top field for their event which begins in Newcastle and had 41,000 starters, the majority running for charity.

Bekele took it up after the first mile as they made their way across the Tyne Bridge, the most iconic point of the race, which takes athletes from Newcastle to Gateshead but just over a mile later they passed the Gateshead Stadium which in itself would have brought back memories for Farah.

He had moved in front by then, less than three months since his extraordinary performance at the European Athletics Team Championships at the stadium where he won the 5000m – and ran the last lap in an amazing 50.89.

Now it was about a gruelling tussle for seven miles with former marathon world record-holder Gebrselassie as Bekele looked out of it.

But then Bekele joined them and the key moment came on a downhill road to the seafront with the final mile looming after they had gone through mile 10 in 4.38 and mile 11 in 4.46 as the weather battered against them to force a slower pace in that latter mile.

Bekele held his balance better and made his move as the course sloped and he took 15 metres out of the other two.

He was in front and took control as the 12th mile was run in 4.37. Farah was second and look steady. He was winding up for a great finish which took off with 400m to go. He was so close, yet not close enough, but what drama he gave the crowd.

In the women's race, France's Christelle Daunay was the leading European as she finished fourth in 69:49 as Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo won in 65:45 from Ethiopians Meseret Defar, second in 66:09, and Tirunesh Dibaba, third in 66:56.

Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka was fifth in 70:14, Croatia's Lisa Stublic was seventh in 73:00 and Portugal's Jessica Augusto, the 2009 champion, was ninth in 73:51.

On Saturday, the Great North CityGames was the track and field celebration which began the weekend of sport in the area.

The 'road athletics' competition took place on man-made tracks by the banks of the River Tyne and British athletes earned a series of wins.

James Dasaolu won the 100m in 10.17 ahead of teammate Dwain Chambers in 10.28 with Ashleigh Wilson taking the women's event in 11.50.

In the field events, triple jumper Chris Tomlinson moved to the long jump and beat America's Olympic champion Christian Taylor – 7.83m to 7.29m – while in the pole vault, Luke Cutts triumphed with 5.50m ahead of Germany's Olympic silver medallist medallist Bjorn Otto, who had a best of 5.30m.

 

European Athletics – News