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Mo Farah pulls out of Commonwealth Games in Glasgow because of illness Mo Farah pulls out of Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after illness
(about 4 hours later)
Mo Farah has withdrawn from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow owing to illness, and will focus instead on recovering for the European Championships in Zurich. Mo Farah still expects to be fit for next month’s European Championships despite pulling out of the Commonwealth Games. Farah, who was due to compete in the 5,000m and 10,000m, was forced to withdraw after failing to fully recover from the abdominal pains that hospitalised him three weeks ago.
The news is a major blow to the Games, coming the morning after they launched the event with a spectacular opening ceremony at Celtic Park. The Guardian understands that Farah was so desperate to add Commonwealth gold to his Olympic and world championship titles that he seriously considered only pulling out of the 5,000m on Sunday – which would have given him five more days to prepare for the 10,000m on Friday week. However, on Wednesday evening, following discussions with his coach Alberto Salazar and the British Athletics performance director Neil Black, Farah reluctantly decided that he was not in gold medal shape and withdrew.
Team England said Farah, 31, would remain at his training base in Font Romeu, rather than travel to Glasgow where he was due to compete in the 5,000m and 10,000m. He will remain at his training base in Font Romeu in the south of France, where he will prepare for the European championships in Zurich, which start on 12 August. However, with no races on his itinerary until then he will arrive having raced only once on the track all year.
Farah had pulled out of his last two races – the Sainsbury’s Glasgow Grand Prix at Hampden Park and last Sunday’s Anniversary Games in London – after being admitted to hospital in the US with abdominal pains. “I have taken the tough decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games,” said Farah. “The sickness I had was a big setback for me. Training is getting better here in Font Romeu but I need another few weeks to get back to the level I was at in 2012 and 2013. I really wanted to add the Commonwealth titles to my Olympic and world championships but the event is coming a few weeks too soon … my body is telling me it’s not ready to race yet. Best wishes to my fellow athletes in Glasgow.”
Farah said: “I have taken the tough decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games. The sickness I had two weeks ago was a big setback for me. Training is getting better here in Font Romeu but I need another few weeks to get back to the level I was at in 2012 and 2013. Only last week Black had talked up Farah’s chances at the Commonwealth Games, saying: “He’s just feeling so good. We really don’t have any concerns with him.” But it is understood that while Farah has had no setbacks, and is still completing his training sessions and hitting his target times, he has been feeling unusually wiped out – the legacy of that stomach problem.
“I really wanted to add the Commonwealth titles to my Olympic and World Championships but the event is coming a few weeks too soon for me as my body is telling me it’s not ready to race yet. Best wishes to my fellow athletes in Glasgow.” Yet British athletics officials claim that everything is broadly fine with Farah and that there is no cause for deeper concern – despite him saying in his statement that the Commonwealth Games came a few weeks too soon. They are confident he will be fit for Zurich and say the intention is still for him to race in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m.
Team England’s chef de mission Jan Paterson said: “It is a real blow for any athlete to miss out on a major championships through injury, but to have fought so hard to regain full fitness and to have to take such a difficult decision at this stage is particularly hard. We wish Mo all the very best and hope to see him back to his peak very soon.” A further three weeks of training should be enough for the 31-year-old’s body to acquire the sharpness he needs to finish in the medals. But recovery can be a uncertain process, and doubts will persist about Farah’s participation until he is seen limbering up at the Letzigrund stadium wearing a GB vest.
Glasgow 2014’s chief executive David Grevemberg admitted Farah’s absence was a blow. “There’s no question we’re disappointed that Mo Farah announced he would be withdrawing. Some might see this latest setback as hubris: and that Farah, having taken on the London marathon this year – and diverted his focus from a track career that brought him Olympic and world championship victories in the 5,000m and 10,000m, – has paid the price for chasing too much. But those close to Farah claim that is nonsense. They say there is no connection between the additional demands of the marathon and the problems he has experienced, which include collapsing at the finish of the New York half-marathon in March.
“We’re very disappointed for Mo. We knew how much he wanted to be here. I’m sure there will be some disappointed people, but there are plenty of great athletes who are here and will be competing.” As they point out, before Farah’s recent abdominal pains he was flying in training, having got back the speed he temporarily lost preparing for the marathon. He just got sick at the wrong time.
Farah’s pulling out comes three days after another big draw, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the new mother Jessica Ennis-Hill’s heir apparent, was forced out by a foot injury. It will help Farah that the level of competition in Zurich is far less strong than at the Commonwealths. Although Kenya have not selected their strongest team for the 5,000m and 10,000m they are still represented by athletes of the calibre of Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku, the 21-year-old who has run two of the seven fastest 5,000m times in the world this year, and Josphat Bett, who is in the top-10 rankings for the 10,000m.
Farah, who is in the Great Britain team for the 5,000m and 10,000m for the Europeans, which get under way on 12 August, has raced only once on the track this year - over 5,000m at the Portland Track Festival in June. By contrast the fastest European 5,000m runner this year is Britain’s Andy Vernon, whose time of 13min 11.5sec puts him 23rd in the rankings, and there are only two other Europeans in the world’s top 50. The European Championships 10,000 will be a little tougher, with four Europeans in the top 50, including the Italian Daniele Meucci and the Belgian Bashir Abdi, both of whom have run a respectable 27.36 this year. But Meucci finished only 19th behind Farah in the world championships in Moscow last year, while Abdi crossed the line in 23rd.
His previous race had been a chastening marathon debut on the streets of London when he came home in eighth place. In peak fitness and top form, Farah would be an overwhelming favourite to see off them and whoever else Europe throws at him next month. But, for the time being, both remain frustratingly elusive.