Great Britain’s Mo Farah provided the highlight of the Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham when he clocked a European indoor 5000m record of 13:10.60 on Saturday.
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| Mo Farah clocked a European indoor 5000m record of 13:10.60 in Birmingham on Saturday. |
His time beat that of Frenchman Bob Tahri, who ran 13.11.13 last year. It was also more than 10 seconds inside Nick Rose’s 29-year-old former record of 13:21.27, which had been the 2010 European Athletics Championships 5000m and 10000m winner’s principal target at the start of the race.
He started off conservatively and was as far back as 20m off the leaders during the early laps to stay out of trouble but, as pacemaker Scott Overall stepped off the track after 2000m, Farah then moved up onto the shoulder of his American rival Galen Rupp for the next five laps.
Farah hit the front at 4000m, which he passed in 10:36.00, but Rupp still had plenty of running left and went back in the lead at the bell, a move which acted as the signal for a terrific last lap duel.
Urged on by an excited and enthusiastic crowd, Farah got back into pole position with barely 100m to go and held his place until the line, pocketing an extra $5,000 home for his record-breaking effort.
Rupp was rewarded with a US record of 13:11.44 while, almost a lap behind, Rui Silva broke the Portuguese record in fourth with 13:41.93.
'My target was definitely to break the British record and, if everything went well, get close to the European record. The crowd made a big difference. It was a nice race for me with Galen, he’s my new training partner so I’m look forward to the next few months.
“We had a plan going into the race. We wanted to start off steady and work our way through, that was the aim,” added Farah, who announced this week that he will now be coached by the American distance running legend Alberto Salazar.
'He's a great coach and he's there to monitor you, even on a long run he's there on the bike and it really does make a big difference to have somebody there passing you a drink and talking to you all the time.'
'There's a lot of things he's picked out that we need to work on but you can't just change everything at once, you've got to change slowly and that's why I want to make a move now so I've still got time ahead of 2012,” commented Farah, talking about his move.
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| Jenny Meadows clocked the third fastest time in the world this year 1:59.22 over 800m in Birmingham. |
Jenny Meadows couldn’t quite follow in Farah’s footsteps and break the British 800m indoor record she owns but the 2010 European Athletics Championships 800m bronze medallist did go under two minutes for the first time this year with 1:59.22, the third fastest time in the world and Europe this year, only behind the Russian pair of Yuliya Rusanova and Yevgeniya Zinurova.
There was also some good running in the men’s 400m with Nigel Levine taking over half-a-second from his indoor best with a run of 46.17, the fastest time by a European runner this winter and the fourth fastest in the world.
Richard Strachan won a separate race in 46.35 to advertise that more than one British 400m man could be in contention for the medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in two weeks time.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in the French capital Paris at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy from 4-6 March.
The men’s triple jump also provided plenty of thrills as Britain’s 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Phillips Idowu came out on top of enthralling battle with his immediate predecessor, Sweden’s Christian Olsson.
Idowu took the lead in the first round with 16.93m but Olsson moved ahead in round three with a jump of 17.20m. The home crowd favourite then responded immediately in the following round by going six centimetres further and then, victory assured, he finished with 17.57m, just seven centimetres short of Teddy Tamgho’s world leading mark of 17.64m set earlier this month in Liévin.
Swedish long jumper Michel Torneus gained a modicum of revenge for his compatriot’s defeat and, fresh from setting an indoor best of 8.10m on Tuesday, won his specialist event with 7.97m.
Aries Merritt, from the United States, won the 60m hurdles in 7.49 with Britain’s Andy Turner third in 7.61 but the 2010 European Athletics Championships 110m hurdles gold medallist had earlier ran a season’s best of 7.57 in his heat.
There was also an American victory in the women’s 60m when Gloria Asumnu won in 7.25 but British sprinter Bernice Wilson chased her all the way to the line and was just one-hundredth off her best when she clocked 7.26.