Mo Farah said he never stopped believing in his own ability after breaking the one-hour world record on his return to the track at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels.
Mo Farah said he never stopped believing in his own ability after breaking the one-hour world record on his return to the track at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels.
The four-time Olympic champion ran 21,330m in the rarely run one-hour event to better the record of 21,285m set by Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie in 2007
It is the first time the 37-year-old Briton, who had not previously competed since last October’s Chicago Marathon, has set a world record outdoors.
Farah becomes the 12th athlete to hold the record that was first set by Englishman Alfred Shrubb in 1904 as he continues his preparations towards next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
"I'm very happy to break the world record.” he said. “What an amazing way to do it and to show people what is possible. I feel tired but it's nice to break a world record.”
The one-hour race sees athletes try to cover as much distance as possible within 60 minutes, with six-time world champion Farah taking victory ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi.
“My first meet back on the track was what was driving me,” Farah continued. “I knew I was in a great shape after the hard work I did in the last six weeks.
“My aim was to go after the world record with Bashir. At a certain point, with just ten laps to go, it became tough so I was happy that Bashir took the lead.
“However, I felt great with just one minute to go. I kept believing in my speed so I knew I had a good chance to take this win. A last fast lap is still my best tactic.
“It isn’t supposed to be easy to break a world record and I can tell you that it was really hard. The record stood for a very long time, so that says a lot.”
Britain’s world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson was also competing in Brussels and ran a season’s best time to finish fourth in the 100m hurdles.
The 27-year-old also produced a joint-season’s best jump of 1.84m in the high jump to come sixth.
“I struggled a lot with my hurdles this season, so I’m so happy that I improved my season’s best,” she said. “That barrier is finally taken. In the high jump I equalled my season’s best.
“I can only say that it was a good day. I can’t complain. This meet was my biggest goal of the season although I knew I had not much to expect.
“In this crazy year I didn’t have any big targets and my coach always talks about PBs before corona and post-corona PBs. It just doesn’t really count.”