By Linden Moore
When Mo Farah competed in the 2011 Prefontaine Classic, no one expected him to win. The British distance runner was in his breakout year when he won the 10,000 meters with a time of 26 minutes, 46.57 seconds.
“I did well,” Farah said. “Coming off that race, it got me confident.”
Farah, a two-time Olympic champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and winner of five world championships, is wrapping up his track career to focus on competing in road races. He will run the 5,000 meters on Saturday, his last competition on a U.S. track.
“This is my last year on the track, so I want to go out there and get a good performance,” he said. “It’s going to be tough with 29 athletes—you got the best of everyone.”
After this season, Farah will focus on road races with hopes to run a marathon.
“I work hard at what I do, and being away from my family for five weeks, not seeing my son and my kids, that’s what drives me,” he said. “I want to continue winning medals for my country.”
Farah thrives under pressure while working to push his body to new heights.
“I like the pressure,” he said. “When you’re an Olympic and world champion year in and year out, you work hard, and I think at the same time you have to step up.”
While knowing this is his final race at Hayward Field in the back of his mind, Farah is concentrated on making it his best yet.
“It will probably be very emotional knowing that it’ll be my last track race in the U.S.” he said. “But tomorrow I just have to concentrate and get the job done.”
Farah will finish alongside some of the athletes he was competing against last year, including Nicholas Mboroto Kosimbei, who almost beat Farah in last year’s Pre Classic but instead finished seventh with a time of 27:02.59.
“He was challenged– a runner from Kenya named Kosimbei took the lead and pushed the pace and Mo started drifting back,” said Prefontaine Classic Meet Director Tom Jordan. “I thought, ‘Are we going to see the first loss by Mo Farah at the Prefontaine Classic?’ He inched back into contention and on the last lap put the medal down and won the race.”
His fellow competitors will remember his victories, too.
“Mo is awesome—he’s a phenomenal talent,” said fellow Olympian Allyson Felix. “To accomplish all the things he has and his Olympic success, it’s pretty incredible.”
He’s aiming to finish his track chapter in his home country of the United Kingdom during the 2017 world championships in the same stadium where he won two gold medals at the 2012 Olympics.
“It’d be an amazing sign-off,” he said. “London is what made me as an athlete, and if it wasn’t for the Olympics then I wouldn’t have carried on in my career.”
Farah also commented on the IAAF’s recent doping scandals, including the allegations against his coach, Nike Oregon Project coach’s Alberto Salazar. “I’m getting sick of it to be honest–it’s something the press likes to twist,” Farah said. “Being an Olympic champion, you do get a lot of that stuff, but at the same time you have to do the best that you can.”
