Something remarkable is happening beneath the smog of Beijing and fog of scandal. A British man is on the brink of confounding traditional athletics thinking by becoming the second best long-distance championship runner of the past 40 years.
If Mo Farah completes another world championships double by winning the 5,000 metres today, he will have five titles to go with two Olympic gold medals. That pushes him ahead of Haile Gebrselassie, the Ethiopian demi-god, who has four world and two Olympic track titles.
Only Kenenisa Bekele, also of Ethiopia, has more, with five world and three Olympic crowns. A double in Rio de Janeiro next year and Farah will be the best since Lasse Viren, the Finn who helped himself to a quartet of Olympic distance gold medals. Already, Farah has broken the African hegemony and shaken up the world order. He is the British Bolt.
“In everything we do, when it’s gone, then you look back and learn,” he said after winning the 10,000 metres on Sunday. It was, perhaps, a memo to the media and public as much as himself. One bookmaking firm had him down yesterday as ninth favourite to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford and the cricketers, Joe Root and Stuart Broad. It is a staggering slight.
The dominance of Farah in recent years has put him up there with not only the Ethiopian duo, but also names from the past such as Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish stone-face who ran with a stopwatch and once won two Olympic gold medals in an hour, and Emil Zatopek, the Czech soldier who pulled off the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon treble in the 1952 Olympics.
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Nurmi was fêted on a tour of the United States in 1924 and posed with Hollywood glitterati such as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, while Zatopek had the ear of the communist regime and even convinced officials to issue a Cold War marriage permit for a Czech Olympian and American hammer thrower. However, neither athlete was appreciated for ever, with Nurmi banned for infringing his amateur status and Zatopek forced to work in uranium mines after picking the wrong side in the Prague Spring uprising in 1968. It would add to history’s shame if Farah was not treasured correctly.
Born in Somalia, raised in Djibouti and beaten up on his first day at school in London, Farah changed when he came into contact with the Kenyans living in a semi-detached house in Teddington, owned by his management company. Since then it is doubtful whether a British athlete has worked harder.
His obsession took him to the US and Alberto Salazar in 2011, unleashing a miasma of distrust when the coach was accused of doping offences and unethical practices by BBC Panorama this summer. He is being investigated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and, since the documentary, 17 athletes have contacted the ProPublica website, the BBC’s co-investigators, to allege inappropriate prescription drug use by Salazar. The Cuban-born coach denies all wrong-doing and, after publishing a 12,000-word open letter as a riposte, Farah said that he would stay with him.
This may be why the bookies are being so miserly, but Farah has not been accused of anything and, while the issue is by no means settled, no one in athletics should be judged without charge or proof.
It is easy to understand why Farah wants to stay with his coach. When he moved to Oregon he was already the double European champion, but had obvious weaknesses. Salazar said that he had speed but no power, claiming that his times running up hills equated to the women in the group. Salazar called this “low-hanging fruit” and said that it was “easy to fix”. He predicted he would take ten seconds off his 5,000 metres time that summer.
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There are caveats when it comes to drawing up a table plan at the pantheon of greats. For a start, Farah is far slower than both Bekele and Gebrselassie. The former is the world record-holder at both 5,000 and 10,000 metres. Farah is only the 31st-fastest over 5,000 metres; the 16th over 10,000 metres. He has never come close to a world record. In terms of medals, he could not come close to Nurmi, who won five Olympic gold medals in six days; in terms of breadth, he cannot match Zatopek and Gebrselassie, who set records for marathons.
And, of course, the likes of Nurmi, Zatopek and Viren never got to compete in world championships. However, merely being in that class shows his status. A win tonight and even his detractors might accept Farah as the greatest British athlete seen.
Who to watch this weekend
Today
Men’s 5,000 metres final, 12.30pm
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It would take a brave person to go against Mo Farah to win another gold medal. A group effort by the Kenyans made his 10,000 metres win last Saturday a hard race, but he says that he is in the shape to deliver again.
Women’s 4 x 100 metres relay, heats: 5am, final: 1.45pm
Both British relay teams have the chance of a medal, but the women, with Dina Asher-Smith in such good form, will be expected to deliver for Britain’s medal haul.
Tomorrow
Men’s high jump final, 11.30am
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This season has not been as spectacular as 2014 in the high jump, when it seemed only a matter of time until either Bohdan Bondarenko or Mutaz Essa Barshim broke the world record, but any clash between them is always fascinating.
Men’s 1,500 metres final, 12.45pm
Charlie Grice has made the final for Britain, but Asbel Kiprop looks a good prospect to add to Kenya’s pile of gold medals in these championships.