Farah bids to inspire new generation of runners

Hopes are high that if the London-raised athlete wins in London he will inspire a generation of British distance runners to take up the sport.

While Liz McColgan and Paula Radcliffe have won gold medals at major championships, British male distance running has been in the doldrums since the 1970s.

Farah’s gold and silver at last year’s Athletics World Championships in Degau has changed all that, but repeating that success in front of a home crowd would have a more lasting impact.

Farah made his Olympic debut at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games competing in the 5000m but he failed to progress through his heat to the final.

In 2009 he spent time training in Ethiopia and Kenya, winning the silver medal at the European Cross Country Championships and improving his times both and outdoor.

At the 2009, World Championships in Berlin Farah comfortably progressed through the 5000m final and finished in seventh position.

The following year, Farah elected to skip the Commonwealth Games in Delhi but won gold in both the 5000m and 10,000m at the European Championships before becoming the first British man to run under thirteen minutes at a Diamond League meeting in August of that year.

Farah now lives in Portland, Oregon, having relocated there in 2011 to enhance his training opportunities in the more temperate climate.

The move to train under new coach Alberto Salazar appeared to have paid when he became world 5,000m champion in 2011. In winning that race he beat Bernard Lagat running away from him with two laps to go.

Earlier in the same championships Farah lost out in the 10,000m in a last lap sprint to Ethiopia’s Ibrahim Jeilan, who failed to make the Ethiopian team for London 2012.

In London he is favourite for the shorter race, with the fast-finishing Ethiopians, led by Kenenisa Bekele, a formidable force at 10,000m.

Born in Mogadishu, Farah moved from Somalia to the UK in 1993 and his PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, identified him at school as having great potential.

Farah was a very successful junior athlete, finishing highly at the World Youth Championships and winning a silver medal at the European Junior Cross Country Championship.

Superstitious, he always shaves his head before major races and wears the same lucky charm bracelet.