Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah surged into the lead with 60 meters remaining to claim victory in the fastest 10,000 meters of the year at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League on Friday.
Farah shook off a valiant challenge by Kenyan William Sitonik to win his first outdoor race of the year and kept alive a five-year winning streak at the distance as he clocked an Olympic-qualifying time of 26 minutes, 53.71 seconds.
“I don’t want to lose here,” said the Briton, who trains in nearby Portland, Oregon.
Photo: AP
Sitonik finished second in a lifetime best 26:54.66 with Ethiopian Tamari Toga third in 26:57.33 as five runners broke 27 minutes.
Though Farah claimed victory on a crisp, cool evening, the 33-year-old Olympic favorite was not overly delighted with his performance.
“It was good to run sub-27 [minutes],” he said. “But honestly, I was kind of disappointed. I was hoping to run a lot faster than that. Sometimes, you know, it’s your first race and then I have to make the decision to continue pushing ... or try and win the race.”
He also was a little disappointed that the race had not attracted a stronger field in which to open his outdoor season.
Farah, who said he was in great shape, stayed near the front until slightly past mid-race before dropping a little behind the leaders.
He worked his way back to the head of affairs with less than three laps to go and led at the bell before the 22-year-old Sitonik, the 2012 5,000 meters world junior bronze medalist, surged past Farah with 250m remaining.
However, Sitonik was never able to open up a significant gap when he kicked for home, as Farah moved up a gear and eased back past his rival on the home straight.
“I felt good at the beginning. Then about mid-race, I kind of felt like, not sluggish, but didn’t quite get moving,” Farah added. “It was hard to pick it up.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later