Farah Breaks World Indoor Two Mile Best in Birmingham

Published by IAAF on February 21, 2015

After all of the conjecture ahead of Mo Farah’s first appearance of the year in the two miles at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix, the final IAAF Indoor Permit meeting of the season, the race proved to be tailor-made for a swift clocking – the swiftest of all time.

The Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham turned into a mini version of London 2012 as Britain’s world, Olympic and European 5000m and 10,000m champion emerged from winter hibernation by nailing the first global mark of his career on another Super Saturday.

Anyone who suspected that the 31-year-old Londoner might have lost a little of his cutting edge after a year in which he performed heroics to complete the track distance double at the European Championships in Zurich following illness and injury were silenced in quite stunning fashion as Farah consigned Kenenisa Bekele’s seven-year-old world best to the dustbin of history.

The Briton crossed the line in 8:03.40, slicing 0.95 off the world best figures of 8:04.35 that Bekele established on the same track in the same meeting back in 2008. It was the first world best or world record by a British man in a middle or long distance track race since 27 February 1990, when Peter Elliott set an indoor 1500m mark of 3:34.20 in Seville.