© Copyright – 2023 – Athletics Illustrated
Sir Mo Farah will give the London Marathon one more shot and he will likely retire after 2023.
The British athlete who was child-trafficked from Somalia made a success story out of his athletics career. He specialised primarily in the 5000m and 10,000m events. Although he has run the marathon well, he hasn’t hit it out of the park just yet. His fastest marathon was in Chicago, where he clocked a 2:05:11 performance in 2018. It stands as the national record. The world record is 2:01:09 by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge.
Farah has run the half marathon on a legal course as fast as 59:32 in Lisbon back in 2015, which is also the British record. He has run 59:07 and 59:22 on courses that were not ratified. However, he is best known for his 10 global championships and for the range of distances that he excelled at.
𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙎𝙞𝙧, 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙈𝙤?@Mo_Farah will give the TCS London Marathon another shot in April 🤩#LondonMarathon | #EliteWeek
— TCS London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) January 31, 2023
Farah holds nine British and or European records or bests (bests are fastest time, but not certified in “record-keeping protocol” by World Athletics).
The 39-year-old has run the 1500m distance as fast as 3:28.81, which is a national record. As is his 7:32.62 3000m performance, and as is his 5000m time of 12:53.11, and 10,000m at 26:46.57.
Farah won back-to-back Olympic doubles in the 5000m and 10,000m events at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games. He did the same at the Moscow and Beijing World Athletics Championships. His first World Championships gold came during the 2011 Daegu edition where he took the 5000m event in 13:23.36. Booking-ending his Worlds run of gold, he clocked a 26:49.51 at the 2017 London event. In Daegu and London, he also earned silver in the 10,000m and 5000m, respectively.
Farah is a 22-time winner at the Diamond League.
In 2021, Farah dropped a bomb when he revealed that he was trafficked as a child. The details were revealed during the documentary The Real Mo Farah. In 2017, Queen Elizabeth knighted him, “Sir Mo Farah” for his service to sports. Farah shared that strangers trafficked him to the UK to work as a domestic servant when he was just nine years of age. His mother says she didn’t even know he’d been removed from his uncle’s home in Djibouti, where he’d been sent to live after his father was killed in Somalia’s civil war.
His story until that time was that he was a Somalian refugee. He has made a success of things.
Farah missed the 2022 London Marathon due to an injury. By the time the 2023 edition happens he will be age 40. He turns 40 on March 23, the marathon takes place on April 23. Farah wants at least one last good run in front of his home fans.
“It’s been an amazing career and taking part in the London Marathon is a very big deal,” he said.
“I was gutted not to race last year and I just want to give it one more shot.
“I’m not a spring chicken anymore. You can’t keep coming back in the right shape, for me, I’d love to be able to finish it at home.
“We are getting closer to the end of my career, for sure.”
Farah has ruled out a fourth Olympics at the 2024 Paris Games.
