18 February 2009

British Indoor 3000m record holder Mo Farah (Newham & Essex Beagles) has been named the European Male Athlete of the Month for January by the European Athletic Association (EAA).

Determined to make amends for disappointment in Beijing, where he was eliminated in the heats of the men’s 5000m, he has spent a rigorous winter training, which is already bearing fruits. He spent the early part of the winter in Ethiopia, before returning home to take part in the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels – where he picked up silver – before de-camping to high altitude in Kenya where he trained right through Christmas and the New Year.  

Showing the obvious positive effects of his African training, Farah returned to the UK one day before the annual Aviva International Match in Glasgow in fantastic form and led the 3000m from gun to tape to smash the British record with a time of 7:40.99, nearly three seconds faster than the next European has run in 2009.

Having achieved European Indoor qualifying standards for 1500m and 300m at the Aviva UK Championships & European Indoor trials he will now compete at Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham this Saturday in preparation for a 3000m title bid at the European Indoors in Turin on 6-8 March.

European Athletics name a male and female winner each month. Croatian high-jumper Blanka Vlasic picked up the female award. Selections are based on votes by the public, the media and a panel of European Athletics experts with each counting for 33.3% of the final vote. 

Click here for more:

http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7108&Itemid=2