Mo Farah looking for double gold as he ends track career

Like Usain Bolt, he is bringing the curtains down on track career

Mo Farah will, like Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt bring the curtain down on his track career at the World Championships with the hopes of a final double golden flourish.

The 34-year-old Farah – who will switch his focus to road running – can capture his 10th successive world or Olympic title in the 10,000 meters today.
Then he hopes to bow out in style on the track in London where he achieved his first Olympic double in 2012 with the 5000 meters tomorrow.

That will bring to an end a 6 year spell where like Bolt in the sprints Farah has dominated.

However whilst many question how will the sport cope without Bolt and his engaging showmanship – lightning bolt and all – perhaps unfairly the same has not been said about the vacuum that Farah will leave in his wake.
Despite his achievements — Olympic (2012/16) and world doubles (2013/15) at both the 5000 and 10000 meters – the British public have been left largely unmoved.

Only once, in 2011, has he reached the top 3 in the popular vote for the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year poll.

It prompted British triathlon star Alistair Brownlee to decry the glaring omission for an athlete whose exploits were recognized by Queen Elizabeth II who bestowed a knighthood on him.
“It’s really sad, because for me he is the perfect British story,” Brownlee told The Guardian in December last year after Farah finished only 4th in the poll.

“It is what we should be about: a person who comes to Britain as a young man, as a refugee, and an ex-schoolteacher (Alan Watkinson) identifies something that he’s brilliant at and he represents Britain as the best in the world.
“I think that’s a fantastic British story.”

Whilst Brownlee put it down to Farah perhaps not being considered British – he came from war-torn Somalia via Djibouti with his mother Amran, and 2 of his 5 siblings aged eight to England to join their father Muktar – doping claims made about his US-based coach Alberto Salazar, since proved to be false, may have had an impact.

Farah, though, is used to adversity.
“It was difficult to adapt to London at first but when you’re aged 8, you somehow find a way,” Farah told The Big Issue, the weekly magazine which is sold by the homeless last year.

“You make friends. I was always quite accepted, I think because I never saw myself as different to anyone else, a different color. I had white friends, black friends. I was easy going. The occasional comment, I just chose not to hear it. I was good at running so the kids liked me for that. If I hadn’t been into running I wouldn’t have made friends, met so many people and learned the language as quickly as I did.”

Farah, who is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Tania and 4 children which includes twin girls born soon after his 2012 Olympic double, will bow out with few regrets outwardly at least save that had he been more disciplined early on his legacy would be even greater.

Source: AFP