Sir Mo back on track
4th September 2020 – In his first track race for three years, Sir Mo Farah (GBR) broke the world one-hour record at the World Athletics Diamond League meeting in Brussels.
The thirteen-year-old record, previously held by Haile Gebrselassie stood at 21,285m meaning that Mo needed to run laps consistently at sub 68 seconds to challenge. With the assistance of several pacemakers and the new Wavelight visual pace-guidance system, Mo and training partner and good friend Bashir Abdi were right on schedule with fifteen minutes left to run.
With five minutes remaining Bashir took up the pace but Mo tucked into his slipstream. Despite his three years away, as the gun went to signal the final minute Mo showed that his finishing speed is still there and moved past Bashir and pushed to see how far he could get. This resulted in a final distance and new world record of 21,330m.
Mo was delighted with his performance saying “I knew I was in great shape after the hard work I did in the last six weeks. At a certain point, with just ten laps to go it became so tough I was happy that Bashir took the lead, but I felt great with just one minute to go. A fast last lap is still my best tactic.”
Mo will need to rest and recuperate before he tackles the Antrim Coast Half Marathon next weekend.
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