London: Somalia-born Briton Mo Farah will signal the final hurrah on a six-year long illustrious career at the World Championships here Friday when he steps on to the tracks for the 10,000m. The Olympic Stadium here saw Farah achieve his first double when he won the 5,000m and 10,000m in the 2012 London Games.
Farah may be a hero now to many in England, but when he arrived here from war-torn Somalia with his mother and five siblings, it was not easy going. “It was difficult to adapt to London at first but when you’re aged eight, you somehow find a way,” Farah was quoted as saying by ‘The Big Issue’, the weekly magazine which is sold by the homeless, last year.
“I had white friends, black friends. I was easy going. The occasional comment, I just chose not to hear it. I was good at running so the kids liked me for that. If I hadn’t been into running I wouldn’t have made friends, met so many people and learned the language as quickly as I did,” he added.
Farah, who is looking forward to spending more time with wife Tania and four children which includes twin girls born soon after his 2012 Olympic double, will bow out with few regrets, one of them being the lack of focus in the early part of his career.
“I wasn’t focused when I was 16,” he told ‘The Big Issue’. “I was just chilling out, going to school, seeing my friends. I wasn’t taking running seriously. I’m not complaining but now I think if I had listened to my coach more then maybe I could have been more successful. I could have won more medals.”
