Mo Farah ready for Kenyan charge

Spurred on by track rival Kenenisa Bekele’s course record-breaking victory in last Sunday’s Paris Marathon, World and Olympic distance running champion Mo Farah is targeting a British record when he makes his marathon debut at this weekend’s Virgin Money London Marathon.

The British star completed his four-month training at the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten on Monday and flew out the same night to London in the company of several marathon greats, including Uganda’s World and Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, former marathon world record holder Patrick Makau and Geoffrey Mutai, the New York Marathon champion.

“All was good with my training in Iten, as always, and I feel great and the people were very good to me,” said Farah who received a special consignment of customized, Arsenal-inspired Nike racing shoes that he will use on Sunday.

The pair of shoes arrived in Iten by courier from Nike’s headquarters in Oregon, USA, and feature a logo of Farah’s favourite English Premier League club, Arsenal, emblazoned at the heel.

Farah, who was joined in Iten this week by his personal coach Alberto Salazar, the IAAF World Coach of the Year, will face serious opposition from Kenya’s world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang (2:03.23), Emmanuel Mutai, who holds the London course record at 2:04.40, and last year’s winner, Tsegaye Kebede who boasts a personal best 2:04.38.

“It will be a tough race and I have never done this (marathon) before, so I will take it easy,” added Farah who later disclosed that he would go for the long-standing British marathon record of 2:07:13 clocked by former London Marathon winner Steve Jones in 1985 at the Chicago Marathon.

“My target is to break the British record then see what comes with it,” said Farah at a pre-race press conference in London yesterday. “It’s going to be an incredible race whatever happens, because if you look at this field it is something special.”

Farah ran until the 21km mark in the 2013 London Marathon as part of his programme to graduate to full marathon running.

Kiprotich said he is ready to once again take on the Kenyans in London where he caused the biggest upset of the 2012 Olympic Games by snatching the gold .

Another lot of elite Kenyan athletes flew out to London last night including Berlin Marathon champion Florence Kiplagat, World Marathon Majors champion Priscah Jeptoo and two-time World champion Ednah Kiplagat.

“I feel good and my training has been good,” Kiprotich, who has been training in Kenya, said before flying out.