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The four-time Olympic gold medallist of Great Britain, Sir Mo Farah, finally proved that he is mortal, by not winning a 10,000m and failing to run the Olympic standard.
The chances of defending his Olympic 10,000m title in Tokyo took a turn at the European 10,000m Cup in Birmingham Saturday night. He experienced his first-ever defeat over the distance by a fellow British athlete, Marc Scott. He fell short of the Tokyo Olympic qualifying time of 27:28.00. Farah finished in the time of 27:50.64.
Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah failed to secure Olympic spot at 10,000m European Cup in Birmingham.
— Olympics (@Olympics) June 5, 2021
Now what? @TeamGB @Mo_Farah https://t.co/TmCxjuiA7C
Scott already qualified Tokyo as he inside the qualifying time this year with his 27:10.41 performance.
The 38-year-old Farah, who was running his first 10,000m in four years still needs to get the qualifying mark by the deadline of June 29. It was his first defeat over the distance since the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.
That same year he took Jon Brown’s national record with a 26:46.57 performance at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR.
The first six to finish ran new personal best times, with the winner France’s Morhad Amdouni clocking a 27:23.39. The second-place finisher was Belgian athlete Bashir Abdi, with a run of 27:24.41. Spain’s Carlos Mayo was third in 27:25.00.
Twenty-six runners finished under 29-minutes.
Eilish McColgan
Scot Eilish McColgan, who had already met the Olympic qualifying standard, secured her Tokyo Olympics place with a win in Birmingham where she clocked 31:19.21.
The women’s Olympic standard is 31:25.00. She has already run a 30:58.94 this season.
Isreal’s Teferi Selamawit finished in second place with a finish time of 31:19.50. Great Britain’s Jessica Judd took third with a 31:20.96, both are personal bests.
Full results are here>>
Sifan Hassan breaks world 10,000m record
Sifan Hassan added another landmark moment to her already glittering career by lowering the 5-year-old world 10,000m record at the FBK Games in Hengelo today.
The Dutch athlete clocked 29:06.82 and shaved almost nine seconds from Almaz Ayana’s old record – regarded as one of toughest in the record books – with a quite brilliant demonstration of distance running.