Farah smashes record

MO FARAH smashed the British record to win yesterday’s Bupa London 10,000 road race.

The 26-year-old crossed the line in 27:50, knocking five seconds off the 25-year-old record of Mark Scruton, to easily beat Samuel Kosgei and Sergiy Lebid.

The Kenyan runner-up, who won the ‘World’s Best 10 kilometre race’ in Puerto Rico in March, clocked 28:03 with Ukraine’s Lebid, an eight-time European cross country champion, finishing in 28:36.

Farah, who won the European Indoor 3,000m title in March having previously broken the national record, continued his brilliant year by producing what ranks as one of the best performances of his career. The European 5,000m silver medallist was content to share the pace with Kosgei after they broke away from the field before pulling clear of the African with three kilometres of the race remaining.

“I knew I was in really good shape,” said Farah, who has only recently returned from a high-altitude training camp in the French Pyrenees.

The west Londoner, who was only pressurised by Kosgei, added: “I wanted to win and to get close to 28 minutes so to get the British record is a bonus. He did hang on for a long time but I knew I could out-kick him. But I wanted a decent time so after 7kms I thought I’d get clear of him.”

After the disappointment of failing to make last summer’s Olympic 5,000m final, Farah will now turn his attentions to preparing for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August.

Certainly his new-found self-confidence after training camps with his African rivals in both Ethiopia and Kenya appears to have borne fruit and he is expected to open his track season over 3,000m in Turin on June 4.

New Zealander Kim Smith was a runaway winner of the women’s race in a fast time of 31:38 ahead of Hattie Dean and Olympic marathon champion Constantina Dita from Romania.