Mo Farah’s coach insists the four-time Olympic champion has not raced for the final time, despite a failure to qualify for the Tokyo Games seemingly signalling the end of his elite career.
Having not managed to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard at Britain’s standalone 10,000-metre trials three weeks ago, 38-year-old Farah asked UK Athletics to put on a guest race at the British Championships in Manchester purely to serve as his personal time trial.
Farah even paid expenses and hotel fees for three international pacemakers to aid his quest, but he could only manage 27 minutes 47.04 seconds – more than 19 seconds slower than the required time.
After reversing his track retirement solely to attempt an Olympic 10,000m hat-trick in Tokyo, Farah admitted after the race that age might have caught up with him.
Insisting Farah could have won a medal in Tokyo, his coach Gary Lough disagreed, saying: “If it was just one of those ‘past-your-sell-by date, you can’t do this anymore’ things… but it really, really is not that situation.
“There’s no way Mo Farah is going to end his career running around the track here. In terms of what’s next, I honestly don’t know. There wasn’t really a Plan B.
“The most devastating and frustrating thing is that he’s in shape and he can do this.”
Despite Lough’s comments, Farah hinted that his elite racing career is probably over, with a proper farewell race a likely proposition before he retires for good.
“I’ve had an amazing career,” said Farah. “I’m lucky enough to be able to have so many medals. If I can’t compete with the best, why bother?
“I’m just gutted. It’s something I felt comfortable in myself in training to be able to do, but it just didn’t happen.
“I don’t know what to think about what’s next for me. I just have to have a chat with my team and see what’s next. But if I can’t compete with the best, why?
“I was happy where we were, what we were doing. We were going pretty well. So, to be honest, it’s a shock.”
Having made his Olympic debut in 2008, before completing 5,000m and 10,000m gold-medal doubles in 2012 and 2016, Farah will now have to follow the Tokyo Games from afar on television.
“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “Of course it’s going to be tough. But it’s the Olympics. If you can’t compete, then you’ve got to watch at home.
“Maybe age has caught up with me. Maybe it’s time to spend time with my kids.”
There was drama on the second day of British Championships action as the clock initially suggested Dina Asher-Smith had claimed 100m victory in a spectacular 10.71sec, only for it then to be revealed as an error, with her winning time corrected to 10.97sec.
The men’s 100m was equally dramatic, with pre-race favourite Zharnel Hughes disqualified for a false-start, leaving Chijindu Ujah to claim gold in 10.05sec. Elsewhere, Holly Bradshaw served notice of her Olympic medal potential by smashing her national pole vault record to triumph in 4.90m.
Analysis: Farah’s time is over but he deserves a final orchestrated goodbye
By Ben Bloom
That is the thing about being the best in the world – at some point you have to know when to stop before others force the decision on you.
Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter in history, found out the hard way when he could only win 100 metres bronze at the 2017 World Championships a year after he should have bowed out on yet another Olympic gold medal hat-trick in Rio.
For Mo Farah, there will not even be one last hurrah on the big stage; no medal downgrade to conclude his title defence. His failure to achieve the qualifying standard that would have brought a spot at a final Olympics means he must watch the Tokyo Games on television from home like all other mortals. The ignominy of a fallen champion.
In all likelihood we will see him again, even if just for an indulgent farewell. Fading to defeat against the clock in front of a few hundred shivering spectators and smattering of cardboard cutouts on a freezing night in Manchester was no way for a four-time Olympic and six-time world champion to sign off for good. That the event was not even on television made it even worse.
There is nothing left for Farah to conquer in athletics. Correction: there is nothing he is capable of conquering at the age of 38.
His brief flirtation with the marathon yielded a short-lived European record but he was unable to contend with the very best in the world. No longer able to challenge on the global stage, does he have the desire to continue training for another year just to sign off with a potential Commonwealth or European 10,000m gold medal next summer? On recent evidence there is no guarantee he would even win one.
More likely is the creation of a specific event for the British public to say goodbye and thank you to their most successful ever distance runner.
One option stands out. Undefeated at the last six editions of the Great North Run, Farah could make one final trip up to South Shields in three months time for a victory that would serve as a fitting farewell. Sure, the field would have to be sufficiently weakened to ensure no one gets the better of the star attraction, but such is the luxury of being the headline act.
Given it is four years since his last global medal success, Farah’s move from sportsman to celebrity is almost complete. Admitting he became “a little bit emotional” as he completed a lap of (dis)honour in Manchester, he noted the support from “kids who weren’t even born when I was winning”.
Those who pay little attention to the vagaries of the athletics world might better know him for his footballing appearances at Soccer Aid or his stint on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! last year.
Asked whether those two weeks spent wallowing in fish guts and dressing as a giant robin might have taken their toll and could have been better spent honing his track skills, Farah laughed and denied that was the case.
For so many, he remains a hero in spite of repeated questions during the latter part of his career over his former coach Alberto Salazar, the man who turned Farah into a world-beater and is currently appealing a four-year ban for multiple doping offences.
No accusations have ever been levelled at Farah, but his refusal to leave Salazar when doping allegations against the American coach first surfaced in 2015 prompted difficult questions. Even when he split from Salazar in late 2017, he insisted it had nothing to do with such claims.
Farah’s legacy will likely always be tarnished by that association, even though he has never been accused of any wrongdoing and repeatedly said he knew nothing of Salazar’s alleged offences. One thing is certain: he fared significantly better under the American than he has since returning to Britain in recent years.
Speaking immediately after his failure to qualify for Tokyo, Farah said: “I don’t regret any part of my career.”
He tried the marathon, he said, because “when you are so good at something you have to try a new event, you have to get excited”. When he then realised he missed the track, he went back to where he had made his name.
That return was always going to be a challenge and it has ended in defeat; a quest too far. Age has caught up with him and his elite athletics career is surely over. Just time for one last wave to the crowd; one final orchestrated goodbye.