NORTH EAST CROWD CELEBRATE WORLD CHAMPION’S RETURN

17 September 2011

Inspired by the outstanding American record breaking performance of his training partner Galen Rupp over 10,000m in Brussels last night (26:48.00), World 5000m Champion Mo Farah (coach: Alberto Salazar) returned to domestic action with an expected but celebrated two-mile victory for the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at today’s Great North CityGames on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside.

Cruising to victory in 8:37.72, Farah, also a World 10,000m silver medallist in Daegu, was never truly challenged, although the USA’s Brian Olinger - eventually second in 8:42.15 - worked hard to stay in contention and even led for much of the first lap.

His win wasn’t enough to give the inaugural match title to the Aviva GB & NI team as the USA took the overall victory 7 v 3, but it gave the large north east crowd something to shout about.

“I really enjoyed the reception out there,” Farah said. “I love competing here and there were so many people coming out to cheer for me, especially into the home straight, it was an awesome feeling. I didn’t expect so much and it was nice to come out and give it a go.”

He was also buzzing after Rupp’s performance last night and admitted it gave him a kick going into his final race of the season: “I’ve said all along Galen can run what I can run because we do the same training. For him to come out at the end of the season and do what I’ve said he could do all season, it’s amazing, I’m so happy. We go through a lot of stuff together, all the ups and downs, and he’s always there for me.”

Farah - who clocked a UK national 10,000m best of 26:46.57 in Eugene (USA) earlier this summer - was one of three Aviva GB & NI winners on the day and was joined by World Championships 1500m silver medallist Hannah England (coach: Bud Baldaro) and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (coach: Michael Khmel) in the mile and 100m respectively.

“Sleep is overrated!” joked England who flew in from Brussels on an early flight following her fifth place finish in last night’s Diamond League event. “I love this event; I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was tough to race last night but it was two great opportunities and I thought I’d have a go at doing both.”

She clocked 4:39.49 to take the win and finished one second clear of her team mate Helen Clitheroe (coach: John Nuttall) who was second in 4:40.65.

Aikines-Aryeetey led a British one-two in the short sprint with 10.27 (+1.5m/s) as he was chased home by Christian Malcolm (coach: Dan Pfaff) in second (10.45), while in the men’s 150m Marlon Devonish (coach: Dan Pfaff) also delivered an impressive end of season performance with a new UK 150m record of 14.87 (+1.4m/s) to finish second behind USA’s double World Championships silver medallist Walter Dix (14.65).

Arguably two of the top USA performances of the day came from World 100m Champion Carmelita Jeter in the women’s 150m in a new unofficial World Record for the distance of 16.50 (+1.5m/s), while in the men’s 110mH, World Champion Jason Richardson clocked a new Great North CityGames record of 13.16 (+0.7m/s).

“I love the venue and the idea,” said Richardson. “I’ve had a great season and this has added to it; to have a small team competition here has been a lot of fun and I’ll be telling everyone back home what a great meet it was.”

Full results are available now on the Great North CityGames websit:www.greatcitygames.org