LONDON: Double Olympic and world champion Mo Farah announced yesterday he would compete at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“Hi guys! I will be running in the Commonwealth Games this year..!! See you in Glasgow..!! Shabba....!!” Farah told his Twitter followers.
However, the 31-year-old, who won both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games before completing the same double at the following year’s World Championships in Moscow, has still to decide in which events he will run in Glasgow.
Last month Farah made his marathon debut, in front of his home crowd in London.
But his lacklustre eighth place finish and modest time, by elite standards, of two hours, eight minutes and 21 seconds, suggested Farah might be better off staying on the track.
The marathon opens the athletics programme in Glasgow on July 27, with the 5,000m final that same evening and the 10,000m being run on August 1.
Usually, when Farah competes internationally he does so for Great Britain. But at the Commonwealth Games, a multi-sport event mainly for countries once ruled by the British Empire, the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom -- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all field their own teams.
It is understood Farah wanted to delay any decision on his Commonwealth Games participation until he’d run in the Glasgow Grand Prix on July 12.
However, Team England said its athletics selection panel would meet on June 2, with the squad announced a week later.
Meanwhile Farah has still to announce if he will take part in the European Championships in Zurich from August 12-17. Farah finished down the field in ninth place in the 5,000m at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but did not take part in the next edition in Delhi four years later, saying he needed a break. REUTERS
Bolt confirmed for Zurich Diamond League meet
PARIS: Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt will compete at the season’s penultimate Diamond League meet in Zurich on August 28, organisers announced yesterday.
The 27-year-old Jamaican, the world record holder over 100m and 200m, has not yet decided which distance he will run at the Swiss venue. Currently recovering from a foot injury, Bolt is set to make his return to the track on June 17 in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. He is also set to compete at the Paris Diamond League meet on July 5 and at Malmo in Sweden in August.
Meanwhile it was announced that French star Renaud Lavillenie will head a strong pole vault field at the May 31 Diamond League meeting at Eugene.
Lavillenie will be defending the pole vault title he won at the Prefontaine Classic last year.
He had said in March he was targeting the meeting after he returned to training in the wake of a foot injury that kept him out of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland.
In February, the London Olympic gold medallist cleared 6.16 metres in Donetsk to break by one centimetre Ukraine legend Sergei Bubka’s 21-year-old indoor world record.
Bubka still holds the outdoor world record of 6.14m set in 1994.
In Eugene Lavillenie will face a field that includes reigning world champion Raphael Holzdeppe, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, and fellow German Malte Mohr.
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