He said he was so focused on Saturday’s title that the doping scandal hardly hampered his preparations.
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Mo Farah of Britain reacts after winning the men’s 10000m event during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 22, 2015. The men’s marathon unfolded in dramatic fashion with a surprise win by an Eritrean teenager. “In Daegu, I did well in the hot weather and I won here at the world junior championships so I hope to do well”, said the soft spoken athlete. Last week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the reigning Olympic women’s 1500-meter champion, Asli Cakir Alptekin of Turkey, would be stripped of her medal for doping.
For despite the pressures of the press and the paparazzi dogging him, and having to leave his family and Salazar behind in Oregon to move to train in Font Romeu earlier than planned, Farah has produced time and again in the past two months. He has admitted his name has been dragged through the mud over his links to Salazar, although he himself has been accused of no wrongdoing and his coach has denied the allegations against him.
Ghebreslassie took a decisive lead after after 35km of the marathon – by which point the immediate past and current world record holders, respectively Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto, had dropped out in conditions of high heat and humidity. He is expected to defend his title in the 5,000 meters next week.
Rupp wasn’t able to stay with the the three medalists in the final lap, and finished fifth behind Karoki in 27:08.91, a time which would have won the world title on ten previous occasions.
He is hopeful of getting the British team off to a golden start in Saturday’s 10,000 metres final, but knows he will be a marked man.
“As a country, I take my hat off to them”, Farah said. He has run the season’s fastest time of 26:50.97.
“As a country, it was nice to see the Kenyans running as a team, sacrificing their own medal for their teammates”, Farah said.
“And also, you know, big game today against Liverpool”.
“If he doesn’t win then people will think, ‘Bloody hell if Mo can’t even win what the hell chance have we got?'”
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In other events, Germany’s Christina Schwanitz was victorious in the women’s shot put with a best effort of 20.37m.
