Mo Farah dazzles over half-marathon in New York

Mo Farah has shown relentless in his pursuit of perfection and success as he turned on a sizzling turn of pace late to stun New York marathon winner Gebre Gebremariam (ETH) into a superb winning debut over the half-marathon in New York, putting Steve Jones's long standing UK best of 60:59 to the sword in the process.

The double European distance champion crossed the line in a time of 60:23, overhauling the previous mark set way back in 1986 through a huge 36 secs, to provide further evidence that his recent switch under Alberto Salazar in Oregon has got the making of a top contender of him, already paying handsome dividents. Needless to say, of course, that Mo's mark goes down as fastest ever debut by a Brit over the distance as well.

Apart from an epic victory, the race also saw him display his full range of qualities as he remained composed and determined when Gebremariam ground out what looked like a decisive edge in the late stages, digging deep into his resources to surge past at the end. And the way he saw off such a mighty opponent at the end will serve notice around that he has arrived among the very best.

There was further good news for the British colours behind as Tony Lemoncello showed a swift return to form in a new personal best of 63 mins sharp in 18th place while Jo Pavey shrugged off her injury worries to carve out a sound 69:33 for sixth in the women's race, won by Caroline Rotich (KEN) in 68:52, and get into the thick of international affairs again.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/20/mo-farah-new-york-half-marathon

Full Results:
http://web2.nyrrc.org/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/1445.1.597088440515525410

Another runner to enjoy a big breakthrough over the distance in New York on Sunday was good old Alistair Cragg, Ireland, who set a new Irish best of 60:49 taking down Martin Fagan's previous mark by eight seconds. The Irishman was delighted with his run and the way he tackled the relatively unknown to him distance and feels he's gearing up nicely towards Boston marathon on April 18.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2011/0320/newyork_cragga.html

That's a great run by Mo, really superb. Also great to hear of Jo Pavey on her comback looks like she's finding some good form again. Cheers for the write up!

Thankyou,Rugbydreamer! I think the fact that Jo Pavey came so close to the previous record on the course, 69:25 by fellow Brit Mara Yamauchi from last year, offers a better measure of her performance (69:33) on Sunday. I think she's definitely on track to something well inside 2h30, maybe close to 2h25 in the marathon.

Here's plenty of imagery from the race courtesy of Track & Field and Photorun:

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=591&Itemid=118

lsabre - defnitely great news for Jo that she's so close to Mara's record, it helps her get a pojected time for the full marathon I guess. I'm just so glad to see her back running and seemingly close to the top of her game!

Mo Farah's 5km splits through the race, 15:05, 14:27, 14:04 and 13:54 in order mean that he covered the approximately last 1.100m in 2:53, that is 2:38 mean pace over 1000m and the race wound up in the end!! With a more even pace through 5km splits, he could have definitely gone under an hour!

Doesn't work like that lsabre, fact is he may struggle to run that fast again, no one knows why this is but it happens.

Actually, it works that way, Flash, and it's no brainer at all! When you can run 60:23 off considerable negative splits (29:32 to 27:58 10km splits) and with the race winding up that way in the late stages, you're definitely in shape to draw well inside an hour. As simple as that.

Further, as long as he remains healthy I can see him run considerably faster over all distances from 1500 upwards than he's ever done before, although I wouldn't expect him to run another half between now and the end of the outdoor track season.

flashcoach wrote:Doesn't work like that lsabre, fact is he may struggle to run that fast again, no one knows why this is but it happens.

Thats not fact Flash, thats your opinion.

"No one knows why this is" Thats because its not fact. Facts are proved, not believed in or hoped for.

"Fact is he may struggle...." If he "may" do anything, thats not a "fact", thats a "theory".

Will you ever learn?

Fact is many athletes "have failed" to better their best performance at no specific stage of their career, and this is what I based my "may" fact on, past evidence.

I learned before you were born, will you ever become polite?

flashcoach wrote:Fact is many athletes "have failed" to better their best performance at no specific stage of their career, and this is what I based my "may" fact on, past evidence.

I learned before you were born, will you ever become polite?

As Lsabre's original post didn't actually speculate on future performance you've once again shown that politeness is not your forte Flash.

flashcoach wrote:Fact is many athletes "have failed" to better their best performance at no specific stage of their career, and this is what I based my "may" fact on, past evidence.

I learned before you were born, will you ever become polite?

Wow. Ok then I'll use your logic using past evidence as basis to predict the future.

Thousands of people will die of the plague.
Prince Charles will have an affair.
An American woman will break a sprint record by a long way and then retire at the end of that season.
British men will win the Olympic 100m & 400m titles at the same games(one of them a white scotsman).
Frankie Goes to Hollywood will knock up 3 consecutive Number 1 hits.
Robbie Williams will leave Take That.
You'll delete someones comment on bbc 606 before it closes, simply for not agreeing with you or questioing your sources.(actually thats a damn solid concrete fact, maybe you do have a brain).

Don't start with the polite jibe, polite is allowing a debate whether you agree with the input or not. What you do reeks of dictatorship.

ON TOPIC - Mo Farah strength to strength, well on course for going under an hour in the half for the exact reasons lsabre explained. Hope he gets a medal in Daegu, really hope he does. xxx

I think it would be useful to present the UK all-time top ten as shaped following Mo's new national best over the half-marathon:

1.Mo Farah 60:23 (2011)
2.Steve Jones 60:59 (1986) (Welsh record)
3.Nick Rose 61:03 (1985)
4.Carl Thakery 61:04 (1987)
5.Richard Nerurkar 61:06 (1996)
6.David Lewis 61:17 (1992)
7.Paul Evans 61:18 (1997)
8.Steve Brooks 61:28 (1997)
9.Steve Kenyon 61:31 (1986)
10.Geoff Smith 61:39 (1983)
- Paul Davies-Hale 61:39 (1991)

Non lottery funded and with no massively NGB support (unlike Mr. Farah) Paul Evans winning run in Marrakesh in January 1995 was 60.09.

Hugh Jones (AIMS Sec) recently confirmed that despite the fact that it was AIMS measured, when they re-measured it was 80mts short (which is why his time was never ratified)

However, one can estimate that the extra 80mts would have been run in approx 13-14 secs (as a finishing surge) giving a full distance time of 60.21/22 which is a better run that Farah's as it was on a flat looped course and Paul was on his own for the last 10k.

I can assure you there can be worse than that, Flash, as happened to Tim Montgomery back in 1994 when he ran a world U20 record of 9.96 secs over 100m only for the track to be found just... 3.7 cm short!! Which wouldn't have modified the final time in the slightest but still didn't count. Rules are made to determine the framework within everything takes place and when/whether that can be acceptable or not.

I liked Paul Evans a lot, a dedicated late developer in the full sense of the word, and that was a brilliant run from him. Nevertheless, it wasn't anywhere near Mo Farah's quality of run either taking into account the substantial negative splits (29:32 to 27:58 10kms) or the searing winding-up late pace into the race, or the top quality opposition he bettered. And I'm most confident Paul himself, who happens to share the same birthday with me, would admit to that.

Mo Farah reveals he was inspired by great Steve Cram into his New York half marathon triumph:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/olympics/3500090/Mo-Farah-says-his-victory-in-the-New-York-half-marathon-was-spurred-on-by-a-surprising-source.html