European 10000m Cup - Mo Farah fails to make British team

Mo Farah's return to the track has been awaited for almost a year, perhaps much longer by people not named Mo Farah. He had finally turned his back on his marathon ambitions and decided to return to the track to earn another Olympic medal.

In particular, he has chosen the 10,000m, at which he has not lost often in the last decade.

Mo Farah's return

Before today's race, Mo Farah had run one world class event since the 2017 World Athletics Championships - the 1 hour event at Brussels in 2020. He won that comfortably, beating the previous world record set by the legendary Haile Gebreselassie.

Somewhat surprisingly he had not even met the Olympic Qualifying standard (27:28 minutes) for his chosen event in the qualifying window. This was perhaps because he was busy attending to his marathon ambitions and hence not even attempting to qualify for the 10,000m event. Now that the Tokyo Olympics are a little over a month away and the qualifying window closes by end June, it was time to get serious.

The event at which Mo Farah has chosen to qualify and book his ticket to Tokyo, was the European 10,000m Cup. The event also served as the British Championships and Trials for the World Championships. Mo Farah wanted to tick 2 items off his list, something he has in common with most athletes at the event. No. 1 was getting the Olympic standard.

The other was to make the Great Britain (GBR) team. The event had a registered field of 66 male athletes, of which only 2 had already met the Olympic standard (Marc Scott and Sam Atkin). Both of them were also looking to book their tickets to Tokyo by being among the first two British finishers in the event. Of the two, only Marc Scott started the event.

Mo Farah - off track on return

From the beginning, it was clear that Mo Farah was not going to have it easy making the cut for the British team or hitting the Olympic Games qualifying standard. The lights along the track, synchronized to the Olympic standard to help the athletes pace themselves, were at best in line with the lead pack.

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and How do you beat Mo Farah?

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By about halfway, the lights were ahead of Mo Farah with Morad Amdouni of France and Bashir Abdi of Belgium in line with the lights. Bashir Abdi of Belgium has been a training partner to Mo Farah in recent times. Later in the race, Carlos Mayo of Spain caught up with the lead pair. The trio tried to keep the pace going as it began to look like this was not going to be Mo Farah's day. Morad Amdouni kept a brave effort going solo for much of the second half as none of the other runners went with him till the last km.

Muller British Athletics 10,000m Championships & European Athletics 10,000m Cup 2021

In the end, Carlo Mayo and Bashir Abdi pushed hard, even getting ahead of Amdouni for a bit. But Amdouni came back strong in the last lap to win the race and punch his ticket to the Olympics. The race bore good news for the first 6 finishers as they all hit the Olympic standards and should make their respective national teams for the Olympics. Several other athletes set personal bests (PB), but Mo Farah wasn't one of them.

Woe Farah?

Mo Farah never looked like he was going to make it and his famed fast finish didn't materialize. He didn't even hit the Olympic standard, let alone make the British team, finishing 20 seconds off the required mark in 8th place. His woes were further compounded by his countryman Marc Scott finishing just ahead of him and as the first Brit, thereby confirming his ticket to the Olympics.

Feature: Mo Farah - The Road to Tokyo

It is unclear at this point whether Mo Farah will make other attempts to make the Olympics qualifying standard in the 10,000m. Only then can he make the British team for the Olympics in the 10,000m. He may fall back on the 5,000m and attempt to qualify in that. Whatever he does, he will want to forget this event in a hurry. Mo Farah's chances of a triple gold medal in the 10,000m have just taken a major hit.

Full Results from European 10,000m Cup

1 Morhad AMDOUNI FRA 27:23.4 PB

2 Bashir ABDI BEL 27:24.4 PB

3 Carlos MAYO ESP 27:25.0 PB

4 Nils VOIGT GER 27:49.0 PB

5 Yann SCHRUB FRA 27:49.6 PB

6 Jesús RAMOS ESP 27:49.7 PB

7 Marc SCOTT GBR 27:49.9

8 Mo FARAH GBR 27:50.6

9 Nekagenet CRIPPA ITA 27:51.9 PB

10 Emile CAIRESS GBR 27:53.2 PB

11 Mehdi FRÈRE FRA 28:03.9 PB

12 Hiko Tonosa HASO IRL 28:13.1

13 Matt LEACH GBR 28:22.3

14 Kristian JONES GBR 28:23.5 PB

15 Tadesse GETAHON ISR 28:24.8

16 Mohamud AADAN TVH 28:25.8 PB

17 Mahamed MAHAMED SOTON 28:26.8 PB

18 Juan Antonio PÉREZ ESP 28:27.9

19 Florian CARVALHO FRA 28:35.0

20 Hugo MILNER DERBY 28:37.0

21 Alberto MONDAZZI ITA 28:39.0 PB

22 Yago ROJO ESP 28:43.7

23 Italo QUAZZOLA ITA 28:50.3

24 Nicolae Alexandru ROU 28:50.7

25 François BARRER FRA 28:52.9

26 Raul CELADA ESP 28:56.5

27 Ivan STREBKOV UKR 29:07.9

28 Krystian ZALEWSKI POL 29:11.5

29 Iliass AOUANI ITA 29:24.4

30 Francesco BREUSA ITA 29:29.0

31 Bukayaw MALEDE ISR 29:32.5

32 Roman ROMANENKO UKR 29:33.6

33 Fabien PALCAU FRA 30:24.3

34 Tachlowini GABRIYESOS ART 30:29.9

35 Jorge BLANCO ESP 30:33.3

Jake SMITH GBR DNF

Yitayew ABUHAY ISR DNF

Samuel BARATA POR DNF

Tom ANDERSON BINGH DNF

Sean TOBIN PACE DNF

David MCNEILL PACE DNF

Results