Double Olympic champion Mo Farah continued his winning start to the year by taking victory in the New Orleans Half Marathon in a course record time after a sprint finish.
The 29-year-old, who claimed the 5000m and 10,000m double at London 2012 last summer, made his first appearance of 2013 at the British Athletics Grand Prix in Birmingham.
There Farah cruised to victory over 3000m and he repeated the trick in New Orleans as he won over the half marathon distance in a course record time of 60:59minutes.
He was made to work to beat Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam in a sprint finish, Farah showing greater speed over the last 200m for a winning margin of a second.
His time beat the previous men’s course record of 61:07 while it also lowered Nick Rose’s near 28-year-old British half marathon record by four seconds.
Farah will run half of the London Marathon in April before going the full distance in 2014 however he knows his performance in New Orleans will have no great bearing on it.
“I was working pretty hard. It was an effort. I was really pushing it,” said Farah. “It was definitely a fast course and with good guys pushing the pace.
“It [the London Marathon] is going to be a completely different ball game. It does not necessarily mean that I am going to be amazing at it; I’ve got to go out there and do it. I am quite excited.”
© Sportsbeat 2013