Exhausted Olympic hero Mo Farah collapses

DOUBLE Olympic champion Mo Farah collapsed shortly after crossing the line in an incident-packed New York City half-marathon yesterday.

Collapsed at the finish line, wife and race officials attend to Mo Farah. Picture: Getty

In dramatic scenes just a few metres from the finish line in lower Manhattan, the champion runner had to be given emergency medical treatment as he lay prostrate on the ground before being taken away in a wheelchair.

Farah, who also tripped and fell half-way through the race, finished second to Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai.

During the race the 30-year-old was in the leading pack of eight athletes when he was sent crashing to the ground.

Farah quickly got back to his feet and resumed running, finishing in 61min 8sec, which is just outside his British record of 60:59.

He later said: “I feel good. I just tried so hard in the race. It’s not a big deal.

“When I fell, I fell pretty hard. I told myself ‘don’t rush’ but when I saw the gap, the gap was big.”

He later tweeted: “I’m doing ok . . . thanks for the concern… disappointed with today… I gave 110 per cent… couldn’t do any more… sorry guys.”

In was Farah’s first competitive outing since he finished second in the Great North Run over the same half-marathon distance last September. He has spent the past two months at high altitude training in Kenya .