Farah back with victory

Mo Farah fell short of a new European record over two miles
27 August 2012

Mo Farah returned to action for the first time following his glorious Olympic double gold at the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix, but came up short in his bid for a record.

The 29-year-old won the two-mile race with considerable and predictable ease, bursting away from the field with 200 metres to go, but was unable to break Steve Ovett's 34-year-old European outdoor record.

Farah, also celebrating the birth of twin girls on Friday, clocked eight minutes 27.24 seconds over the rarely-run distance, well short of Ovett's mark of 8mins 13.51secs.

Farah, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles in London, was roared on to those successes by 80,000 screaming fans. The surroundings at the Alexander Stadium, capacity 12,700, were rather more modest, but he still received the loudest cheer of the afternoon.

Farah claimed the record was not on his mind.

He said: "Not at all. To be honest with you I've had a hard week with (wife) Tania giving birth. The other night I didn't get much sleep as well. Then I came up here, that wasn't easy.

"I got great support from the crowd so my main aim was just to come out here, win the race and not even think about any time.

"I've felt a bit tired to be honest. It's been hard. The Olympics was what I trained so hard for with all the miles week in, week out.

"I've just got one more race and then that will be it for me. Then I'm looking forward to taking my break and spending a bit of time with the two little ones."

Farah's last race of the season will be the Great North Run half-marathon on September 16.

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