Farah reigns supreme after six-week gap

Victory good response since doping claims against coach, says British runner

LAUSANNE: Reigning Olympic and double world champion Mo Farah dominated the 5000m at the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday in his first outing since doping allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar.

Farah kicked back on the final lap from 80m out to beat a high-quality field featuring five of the top six in the world rankings this year, and said afterwards that the victory was a good response to his and Salazar’s critics.

The 32-year-old Farah, who is also current Olympic and world 10,000m champion, clocked a meeting record of 13 minutes 11.77 seconds, with Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha in second (13:12.59).

“This is what I work for, the crowd was great,” beamed Farah after his first outing over 5,000m this season and his first race in six weeks after he pulled out of the Birmingham Diamond League meet in early June to return to his US training base to confront Salazar over doping allegations.

“I had a great finish. Overall I am happy with the way the race went today. This victory is also a way to answer some of the critics regarding my coach that came out lately.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2015.

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