Double Olympic champion Mo Farah put in an excellent last-lap effort to win the 5km race by a comfortable margin on Day 1 of competition at the European Team Championships at Gateshead International Stadium. In the absence of any major world class competition in his race, the Oregon-based Londoner lit the afterburners in the final 400 metres, putting the rest of the field to the sword to the delight of the crowd. Having sauntered through the opening 11 and a half laps, Farah impressed by clocking a last-lap split of 50.9 seconds that will send a signal of his form and finishing speed to his main rivals ahead of the Moscow World Championships later this season.
Britain’s other Olympic champion present at the meet, long jumper Greg Rutherford, could only manage 8.02 metres for third place, some 34 centimetres behind Russia’s Alexander Menkov in first place. The Milton Keynes athlete has been well documented as enjoying his time since his Olympic success and could be seen joking and laughing with the crowd between his jumps, appearing very relaxed in competition. Jumping in Birmingham next week, Rutherford admitted a few aspects of his performance needed tweaking with an eye on tapering his form for the World Championships.
The Team Championships run in a different format to other athletics competitions, with athletes stockpiling points for their nations depending on how they fare in their event, making what is typically a very individual sport a team affair. Britain’s duo of world-class female 400m hurdlers both won their events, each taking the maximum twelve points for GB in the process. Eilidh Child was victorious over the hurdles in a personal best time of 54.42, whilst team captain Perri Shakes-Drayton instead took on the 400 meters flat, which she won convincingly with a European Leading time of 50.5 seconds. There were also victories for the men’s 4×100 metre relay squad and teenage 800 metre runner Jess Judd, who put in an impressive performance just days after finishing her A Levels.
After the close of the first day of the two day championships, Britain sit 3rd in proceedings, trailing Germany and Russia, but ahead of their statistically predicted target of 5th place, with another day of competition and the second half of events to come this afternoon.