Mo Farah this week returns to the scene of his lowest moment confident of making history at the World Championships.
The 32-year-old has dominated long-distance events in recent years, but it is easy to forget things were not always so rosy. Just seven years ago, Farah failed to even make the final of the Olympic 5,000m at the Bird’s Nest Stadium. It is a moment Farah calls the “biggest disappointment” of his career, although it acted as the catalyst for the incredible success that followed.
“It’s every athletes’ dream to go to an Olympics and do well,” he said. “I remember clear as a whistle in Beijing getting knocked out and coming back home with my head down, knowing that I could have got to the final but I didn’t. That was quite hard.
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“But I turned it around quite well. I came back four years later in London, my home town, and that was the most amazing thing. I guess you can’t ask for more than that.”
More is what he got, though, completing the double-double at the World Championships in Moscow the following year. Farah became only the second man to achieve that feat and things could get even better in Beijing if he can become the first to secure a third successive long-distance double at major global championships.
He is hopeful of getting the British team off to a golden start in today’s 10,000 metres final, but knows he will be a marked man.
“I’m confident, I’ll go out there and give it a go and give it 100 per cent,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy. Of course I want to win but the guys are not going to make it easy.”
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