NEWCASTLE, England — Britain’s Mo Farah capped his illustrious competitive racing career with a fourth-place finish at the Great North Run half-marathon in Newcastle.
Wearing a bib that read “Sir Mo,” the six-times Great North Run winner crossed in one hour, three minutes and 28 seconds, high-fiving dozens of people lining the route down the home straight.
“There was a lot going through my mind,” Farah told the BBC. “I wanted to end my career here in Newcastle. I’ve won it six times and come here off the back of Olympics and World Championships.
“It is very emotional. I get to go and enjoy my time with my wife and kids. Running is all I know.
“When you win something, you don’t quite appreciate it as much as when you lose. I’ve struggled with injuries these last few years.”
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, the 2022 world marathon champion, won in 59:58 to erase his disappointing marathon at the worlds last month in Budapest where he did not finish.
Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in 1:06.45, Reuters reported.
The 40-year-old Farah is a six-times world champion and four times Olympic champion.
He raced to gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m in both the 2013 and 2015 world championships and repeated the golden double at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics.
“I shared my story of what I went through as a child. Without having something to do and make me happy, it would have been very difficult for me,” Farah said.
Farah was born in Somalia and revealed in 2022 that he was illegally brought to the UK and forced to work as a domestic servant at the age of nine.
He admitted that he had hoped to bow out at the Olympics but he was unable to qualify for the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 after his ‘double double’ of track golds over 5,000m and 10,000m in 2016 and 2012.
“At times I struggled,” he said. “When you win something, you don’t quite appreciate it as much as when you lose. The last couple of years I struggled with injuries – many times I doubted myself. It’s been a hard journey. I wanted to end my career at the Olympics, that was the moment for me I imagined.
“There’s a lot going through my mind – I’ve won it [the Great North Run] six times, had some amazing memories. I tried my best in the race but it was tough. It’s really important to come out here and give my support to the crowd.”
Elsewhere, Agnes Ngetich of Kenya shattered the women-only world 10km record by clocking 29:24 at the World Athletics Elite Label road race in Brasov, Romania.
Ngetich, 22, covered the initial 5km in 14:25, four seconds faster than the previous world record for that distance.
The previous record was held by the late Agnes Tirop of Kenya in Herzogenaurach in 2021.
Ngetich’s compatriot Catherine Reline came in second in 30:14, while Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek settled for a third-place finish in 30:34.
“As well as being the fastest women-only 10km, Ngetich’s time is the third-quickest by a woman in history, behind only the 29:14 run by Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw in a mixed race in Castellon last year and the 29:19 Yehualaw clocked in Valencia earlier this year,” World Athletics said in a statement.
Weldon Langat won the men’s race.
