On April 23, the London Marathon will be held and the prestigious competition, in addition to having the best in the world, will be attended by the British Mo Farah and will not be another race for the legend of athletics.
Farah announced that this will be his last year in competition so it will also be his farewell to the London Marathon, which he was unable to run last year due to an injury to his right hip.
“I’m not going to the Olympics and I think 2023 will be my last year. But, as I said, I’m going race by race and preparing for the London marathon, which is very important,” said the four-time Olympic champion, who, beyond his decision, left the door open for Paris 2024: “If at the end of the year they chose me for my country, I would never turn it down.”
“The London Marathon has always been special to me. I was very disappointed to miss last October due to an injury, but I am very happy that the event has returned to April (due to the pandemic, the dates have been changed in the last three editions) since I don’t have to wait a whole year for another chance,” explained Farah, who knows what it’s like to win a marathon because he won Chicago in 2018.
“Last year I was discouraged by not running and seeing my training partner Bashir Abdi finish third. We had done almost everything together, so I was devastated, but at the same time I just want to give myself one more chance to see what I can do,” said Farah, who will race for the third time in London and has the best result in third place in 2018.
Farah marked an era in track and field athletics and will retire with four gold medals: in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro she won both the 5000 thousand and 10 meters. In addition, he was a six-time world champion and a five-time European champion.
Farah will be 40 years old on March 23 and he beat his last marathon with his people: “I just want to get to the starting line and see what I can do. I’m no longer a chick, I’m no longer the goose that lays the golden eggs. You can’t always get back in good shape and, in my case, I would love to be able to finish it at home. We’re getting closer to the end of my career, for sure.”
Farah returned to running in December, commenting that the injury allowed him to “take more time to fully prepare for running a marathon” and stated that “it’s a special event for me and my family, since my mother won the 1996 race and I can’t wait to experience it for myself.”
The London Marathon promises a great show and not only because of the farewell of Mo Farah, but four of the five fastest in the world will be present on the 23rd of opening: the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele (second record of all time with 2:10:40), the Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum (won the Valencia Marathon 2022 with 2:01:53, the fastest for a debut) and the also Ethiopians Birhanu Legese (2:02:48), Mosinet Geremew (2:02:55).
The Ethiopian Tamirat Tola, current world champion, and the Kenyan Amos Kipruto, winner in London last year, will be other figures in a marathon that will have Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, owner of the world record (2.01.09) and double Olympic champion after winning the marathon in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
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