Mo Farah in Addis Ababa in November 2008 (© Nahom Tesfaye)
The 15th SPAR European Cross Country Championships take place in the Belgian capital tomorrow (Sunday 14) in what is forecast to be sunny weather conditions.
“My shape is fine, so I should be able to show a good performance. And my confidence is accordingly well,” said Britain’s Mo Farah during Saturday’s press conference at the venue of the championships in Parc de Laeken. Farah had won the event two years ago, but was unable to compete in 2007 due to an injury.
In his statements the 25-year-old Farah chose a careful approach, knowing that the 10km race will be a tough one and that predictions are difficult.
Asked about his potentially strongest rivals he answered: “This will probably be a very good race since there are a number of strong runners. I will go there, run and see what is possible for me. Obviously I expect Sergiy Lebid to do well. He is an athlete who always gives 100 percent and it is difficult to beat him. Then there are Mustafa Mohamed and the former Ethiopian runner Alemayehu Bezabeh, who now competes for Spain. I don’t know him so far, but I have heard of him.”
Another one, who he knows very well, is the French Steeplechaser Bob Tahri. “Bob is in fine form as well,” said Mo Farah. The reason he knows is that he teamed up with Tahri and Mohamed for training.
“I have known Mustafa well for some time. He came to Great Britain to join me for training. So now all three of us went to Ethiopia for high altitude training,” explained Mo Farah. “I think it is very important to train together with other athletes. If you train in a group it benefits each of the athletes more.”
Farah trained for six weeks in Ethiopia before he returned to Britain two weeks ago. “It is very high for running. We trained 10,000 to 10,400 feet above sea level. So you have to choose a careful approach and also we had to adapt to the different food. Mustafa had a problem at first with the high altitude. But my training went very well.”
Asked about who was the strongest of the three when they trained together Farah explained: “I can’t say too much about this. We did not run against each other in training.”
Since coming back from Ethiopia, Farah has had one race before Brussels. “I was fourth in the Dunkirk cross country. Two Ethiopians and one Kenyan were in front of me. Back in 2006, when I won the European Cross, I also ran in Dunkirk before and won the race.”
It was also in 2006, when Farah ran the Brussels annual cross country event in Parc de Laeken, finishing well behind. “I hope it will not be as muddy as two years ago.” It should not be too bad tomorrow since it has not rained in Brussels since Thursday.
In general, Farah said that he very much likes running cross country. “I try to include cross country into my programme every year,” he said. “But I have not yet decided if I will compete in the World Cross Country Championships in March next year.” Looking further ahead he said that the 5000m in the Berlin World Championships in August will be his major goal in 2009.
Twell looks for third title
While Farah will be in with a good chance tomorrow, Britain has an even better title chance in the women’s 4km junior race.
“It would be a great pleasure to end my career as a junior with a third European cross country title,” said Stephanie Twell, who has already won this race in the past two years. “Those wins in the cross country were fundamental for my career,” said the 19-year-old, who hopes that she can also lead the British junior team to another gold on Sunday.
“I will run my own race and concentrate on myself. It is my aim to be able to finish strong,” said Twell, who feels that she is very well prepared for the challenge. “I am familiar with this sort of course. In training I did run a lot of ups and downs and bends,” she said. “I feel a bit sad to leave the junior level, but at this stage it is a very important transition.”
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
