Mo Farah does not have great memories of the Bird’s Nest stadium. He had arrived at the 2008 Olympic Games full of hope for his first medal in a global championships, but finished sixth in his heat of the 5,000 metres and failed to make the final.
It is a result that has been quoted much this year, as a mark of Farah’s improvement to become the dominant force in track distance running, as mud has been slung at the double Olympic and world champion after doping allegations made against Alberto Salazar, his coach, this summer.
“It was the biggest disappointment in my career, probably,” Farah said. “Every athlete’s dream is to go to the Olympics and get in the final or do great things. I remember 2008 clearly.
“I remember coming back home with my head down, knowing that I could have got to the final but I didn’t. That was quite hard. But I turned it around quite well. I came back four years later in London, my home town. I guess you can’t ask more than that.”
Things should be different this time. Farah expects, Great Britain expects. There is an unbreakable feeling of confidence behind Farah and it spreads to the rest of the Great Britain team. Farah could give Britain a golden start to the world championships today in the 10,000 metres. Farah’s miserable summer in the spotlight could be about to turn around.
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“There is an expectation that Mo is going to win and that is going to set the scene,” Neil Black, the British Athletics performance director, said. “So it’s massive. If he doesn’t win, people will go ‘bloody hell, if Mo can’t even win, what chance have we got?’
“Thankfully he’s the type of personality and has the performances to indicate that he doesn’t find that a burden. Mo has an ability to focus on what is important to him and to actually push everything else to the side.
“He’s consistently done things over the last few months that have demonstrated he’s in really good shape and that he’s really fast, and clearly he’s gained additional motivation from some of the challenges in that. He’s turned a negative into a positive and that’s how he’s using it.”
Farah’s connection with Salazar, who is the subject of an investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), has mostly been restricted to the phone and emails, but the coach is in Beijing and was pictured yesterday with Farah at the Bird’s Nest. They trained in the stadium for the first time together on Thursday.
Black insists that Salazar is welcome at the British team hotel. Every aspect of Farah’s training has been discussed by Black, Salazar and Barry Fudge, the British Athletics head of endurance. “We communicate regularly but briefly with Alberto, sometimes every day, sometimes every two or three days based around Mo Farah’s training,” Black said. “He hasn’t been involved in any other aspect of the broader endurance programme during that time because there was just a sense that we focused on Mo and his preparation. Mo does key sessions every third or fourth day, so there’s a little bit of preparation, there’s what happened, there’s what do we do next.
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“I don’t unnecessarily dwell on the Usada investigation and what the outcome might be. I can’t influence it. The real focus is the next ten days, and that’s what we’ve done and that’s what we’re all really good at.”
If Farah is successful in his events, he will become the first runner in history to win both the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres titles at three successive global championships. But he is expecting a different challenge, with runners from Kenya or Ethiopia teaming up in an effort to bring him down rather than just running to individual plans.
“I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t happened before now,” Farah said. “It has to change. I’m sure it will.”
•Jack Green has been forced to withdraw from the British team after suffering a severe bout of sciatica. Green had been selected to compete in the men’s 400 metres hurdles and as part of the 4 x 400m relay in Beijing. Black said: “I really feel for Jack, who put his all into getting fit for the championships.”
Farah’s main rivals
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Paul Tanui, Kenya A bronze medal-winner in the world championships in 2013, he achieved the second fastest time of the year when finishing behind Farah over 10,000 metres in the Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon, in May.
Geoffrey Kamworor, Kenya The world half-marathon champion last year and world cross-country champion this year, Kamworor has a best of 2hr 06min 12sec in the marathon but impressed on the track, finishing third in Eugene and winning the Kenyan trials.
Galen Rupp, United States Farah’s training partner won a silver medal behind him in the London Olympics, but has had a difficult year after facing allegations against himself and Alberto Salazar, his coach, of doping.