19 August 2010

Mo Farah (Coach Ricky Simms) finally broke past the 13minute barrier and took the UK 5000m record on Thursday night with a superb performance finishing fifth in the Weltklasse Zurich meeting of the Samsung Diamond League.

His time of 12:57.94 was inside the previous UK record of 13:00.41 set by Dave Moorcroft in 1982, and marks a superb breakthrough for the double European gold medallist over 5000 and 10000m.

And former record holder Moorcroft was one of the first to offer his congratulations to the talented Brit:

“I think it was amazing what he did tonight, it was a superb performance, and to do it after his double win in Barcelona was a great run.

“To do it after the season’s major championships as we are seeing for a lot of European athletes, it is a really physically and emotionally hard time of the season to produce your best and for him to do it now is really special.

“It’s perfect timing really – it’s now out of the way and he can look forward at the start of each season at concentrating on titles now.

“I think he’s probably the most talented runner we’ve had in distance running, I think people really want to see him win something at world or Olympic level, and that would be some achievement as we’re in one of the toughest eras for distance running right now, but so many people are behind him and want to see him do well.”

To see more results from tonight’s Samsung Diamond League fixture including other GB performances follow this link.