“I Had a Wonderful Career”- Defending Champion in Athletics Fails to Qualify for Tokyo Olympics 2021

Four-time Olympic champion, Mo Farah will not be defending his gold medal in 5000m and 10,000m after failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2021. The Veteran runner failed to qualify for what would have been his fourth Olympics.

Mo Farah was seconds short of qualifying for Tokyo Olympics 2021

Farah is a double defending Olympic gold medalist in 5000m and 10,000m. However, with age catching up with the Brit, he fell short of the qualifying mark of 27.28 and was 19 seconds behind with a time of 27.47.

“You go out there and give it all and that’s all you have. It’s quite windy. I tried to push and push and I ran my lungs out,” Mo Farah said.

Farah had missed the qualifying mark in the trials held in early June. Hence the veteran took part in the British Athletics Championships 2021 in Manchester in a bid to qualify for his fourth Olympic games. Mo Farah said: “I’ve had a wonderful career. I’m very grateful. That’s all I had today.”

Mo Farah has had an illustrious career that includes 19 gold medals, 9 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals. He was a double Olympic champion at the 2012 London Olympics and successfully defended his title in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Moreover, he has six World Championships gold medals as well.

“It’s a tough one. If I can’t compete with the best I’m not just going there to finish in a final. Tonight shows it’s not good enough.”

Farah is a long-distance runner and after clinching his last World Championships gold in 2017, he announced his retirement from track running and moved over to marathons. But he made a u-turn in 2019 and came back to track running.

But his return didn’t go as planned. Farah wanted to defend his Olympic gold in Tokyo and hence took part in the 2021 European 10,000m Cup. However, he finished 8th with a time of 27:50.64. He was running in 10,000m for the first time since 2017 and that hence his timings were way below his best. Now that Mo Farah will be absent from Tokyo Olympics 2021, he will most probably go back to being a marathon runner.

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