Mo Farah sorry for Andy Vernon Twitter row
Farah was involved in a lengthy heated exchange with Vernon on Tuesday night, during which he called his Great Britain team-mate “an embarrassment”. “I’ve definitely learned a lot. I apologise to all the fans and the public out there,” the 31-year-old said.
He had been responding after Vernon, who earned his best career result to date when he was second to Farah in the European 10,000m last summer, criticised the lack of high-level competition to face Farah in Birmingham on Saturday.
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Hide AdFarah added on BBC Radio Five’s Sportsweek programme yesterday: “I shouldn’t have made the comments I did. To be honest with you, I reacted... my reaction got the best of me – 100 per cent. I apologise and we’ve just got to move on.”
Fired up by the public feud, in which Somalia-born Farah claimed Vernon questioned his nationality (Vernon claimed this was “lies”), the double Olympic champion roared to a new world indoor best of eight minutes 03.40 seconds over two miles at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix.
Farah later denied that he had anything to prove as he galloped to victory days after the Vernon row. Asked if he felt he had a point to prove, Farah said: “Not at all. I always knew I wanted to go for a world record. Training has been going pretty well. For me, I just wanted to go out there and see what I can do.”
It was the first time the double world champion has broken a world record, but he hopes it will not be his last.
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Hide Ad“I can’t get excited just breaking one record,” he said. “I’ve got to continue doing what I’m doing.”
Farah was speaking inside the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, to launch the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games which will be held at the venue in July.
The inside of the venue looked like a building site as its transformation takes place to host football club West Ham United.
But Farah revealed it was still special to return to the site of the London Olympics. He said: “It looks different to when I raced at the Olympics in 2012, but we’re working on it. It brings back great memories just looking at the track now and thinking, ‘where was the home straight? where was the crowd?’, and getting that feeling back.”
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Hide AdFarah said he hopes his step-daughter, Rihanna, could one day compete in the stadium. “She’ll be taking part in different events, so I’m looking forward to bringing her on the track and saying ‘this is where daddy did it’,” he explained.
Farah said that if she did race there he would be “like normal parents cheering for their kids”.
“It’s great to be able to know this is going to be our home ground for the next 50 years. I can bring my kids to a home where we can come over and watch the athletics every year.”
Farah advertises meat substitute Quorn – but the double Olympic champion also admitted he failed to keep his food down after breaking the world record. When asked if performances like that take a lot out of him, he replied: “It does. Did you not see me throw up afterwards?
“I was throwing up after I broke the record. I was tired (and) knackered.”