Farah Fulfils British Hopes as Keitany Gets Course Record

Published by IAAF on September 7, 2014

Double Olympic, World and European champion Mo Farah became the first British man to win the Bupa Great North Run since 1985 when he crossed the line of the IAAF Gold Label Road Race in a winning time of 1:00:00 on Sunday (7).

However, usurping Farah in the eyes of unbiased athletics fans, the performance of the day came in the women’s race, where Mary Keitany spectacularly broke Paula Radcliffe’s 11-year old course record by one second.

In what was only her second race after coming back from giving birth to her second child the Kenyan clocked 1:05:39.

Farah just held off the challenge of Kenya’s Mike Kigen, after a race-long duel between the pair, for his first win at the famous race after finishing second last year behind Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.

It was Kigen, the fastest runner in the field with a best of 59:58 and one of Farah’s training partners whenever he is in Kenya, who pushed the pace very early in the race.

“We had agreed that we should start the race fast to leave the others behind as soon as possible,” Farah later revealed.