Mo Farah Targets Sixth Consecutive Bupa London 10,000m Title

Published by Athletics Weekly on May 1, 2014

Mo Farah is to go for his sixth consecutive Bupa London 10,000 title on May 25, as organisers also confirm he is to be the official starter for the senior men’s and women’s races at the Bupa Westminster Mile event the day before.

Following his starting duties on the Saturday, the double world and Olympic champion will also join young athletes in running the boys’ under-11 and under-13 London Borough Challenge races, before he returns to the streets of the capital to contest the 10km event the following day. It will be his first race since making his debut over 26.2 miles at the Virgin Money London Marathon last month.

Around 5500 runners are expected to be involved in 30 one-mile races on the roads around St James’s Park in central London at the Westminster event which comes just over two weeks after the 60th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s first event sub-four-minute mile at Oxford’s Iffley Road track.

Bannister himself is patron of the London Marathon-organised event, with the winner of the senior men’s race be be awarded the newly-commissioned Sir Roger Bannister trophy. The senior women will compete for the Diane Leather trophy, named after the first woman to run a sub-five-minute mile, also 60 years ago. Leather, now Diane Charles, ran 4:59.6 at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium just three weeks after Bannister’s famous feat.