Mo adds fuel to comeback fire

Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 21

Sir Mo Farah did not show his signature pose — ‘Mobot’ — for the shutterbugs. But the Briton’s statement will make the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) officials very happy.

Farah, who switched over to road races after his final track race in August last year, did not rule out a comeback to the track ahead of next year’s World Championships.

The carrot for Britain’s most decorated track athlete in the modern era is to achieve immortality. No athlete has won the 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals at three successive Olympics. Farah (2012 and 2016) and Finland’s Lasse Viren (1972 and 1976) are the only two to have done the double at two successive summer Olympics. Farah also did the double at two consecutive World Championships.

“I had won so many medals in track and then I decided to take a break and move to road,” Farah said. “Now I have gone to road and got my time done. I won the Chicago Marathon, which changes everything,” the 35-year-old added.

“A part of me misses the track as I see my colleagues competing well. But I am not sure. We have got the World Championships in 2019… may be just now I’ll concentrate on road. In my career, I have nothing to regret so I will take each race as it comes and maybe a couple weeks down the line make a decision on it,” he added.

Since he quit track, Farah won the Great North Run in September last year and the inaugural London half marathon this year. He came third in the London Marathon. In September, he again won the Great North Run and went on to win the Chicago Marathon.

Stepping off the track has also ensured that Farah gets to spend more time with wife Tania Nell, twin daughters Aisha and Amani, and son Hussein. “I am spending longer time with the family,” Farah said. “In our career we try to be perfect and it is hard to be perfect. I have had a long career. I have won so many medals on the track. But you have to have that drive,” said Farah.