SIR Mo Farah has run the final race of his glittering career – and came fourth in the Great North Run.
The four-time Olympic champion announced he would be ending his career at the North East half-marathon earlier this year.
Wearing a bib that read “Sir Mo,” the 40-year-old Olympic legend finished in 1:03:28.
Ethopia’s Tamirat Tola won the men’s elite race, finishing just shy of the hour mark with a time of 59 minutes and 58 seconds.
Farah has previously won the race six times and was greeted by vast crowds of people lining the Coast Road, offering high fives as he approached the finish line.
“There was a lot going through my mind today,” Farah told the BBC.
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“I wanted to end my career here in Newcastle. I’ve won it six times and come here off the back of Olympics and World Championships.
“It is very emotional. I get to go and enjoy my time with my wife and kids. Running is all I know.
“When you win something, you don’t quite appreciate it as much as when you lose. I’ve struggled with injuries these last few years.”
He had previously said he won’t ever go running, even a Parkrun.
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Farah said: “I will be very emotional because running is all I know.
“I have got so much joy out of it, so many memorable moments.
“Running for me was a way out of life and I will definitely miss it.
“I will continue to stay active, but you won’t see me jogging for the sake of jogging.
“I can’t see myself going out for runs. I will go to the gym, play football, play golf.
“I am just going to take a nice break now and find something that can motivate me.”
Farah is a six-times world champion and four times Olympic champion.
He raced to gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m in both the 2013 and 2015 world championships and repeated the golden double at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics.
Last year he revealed that he was the victim of child trafficking, and his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
Farah was born in Somalia and revealed in 2022 that he was illegally brought to the UK and forced to work as a domestic servant at the age of nine.
Sir Mo said: “I shared my story of what I went through as a child.
“Without having something to do and make me happy, it would have been very difficult for me.”
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Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, the 2022 world marathon champion, won in 59:58 to erase his disappointing marathon at the worlds last month in Budapest where he did not finish.
Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in 1:06.45.
MO’S INCREDIBLE CAREER
MO Farah has retired but leaves us with some amazing memories.
London 2012
Part of Super Saturday on August 4 he won the 10,000m minutes after Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford won gold medals.
A week later he became a sporting great by winning the 5,000m in 13 minutes and 41.66 seconds – and celebrated with the iconic Mobot.
Rio 2016
Farah completed the double double in Brazil as he defended his 5,000m and 10,000m titles from London four years previously.
He became the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals as he first retained the 10,000m title after overcoming a fall mid-race and the 5,000m followed in Rio.
London 2017
Five years after his Olympic triumphs in Stratford, Farah returned to London for the World Championships.
He took gold in the 10,000m in 26 mins and 49.51 secs ahead of rival Joshua Cheptegei having been put under serious pressure by the collective pack who were aiming to dethrone him.
Daegu 2011
Farah won his first world title in Daegu when he claimed 5,000m gold at the World Championships.
The then 28-year-old became the first British world champion over the distance after holding off American Bernard Lagat to win in 13 mins and 23.36 secs, seven days after being pipped to victory in the 10,000m.
Beijing 2015
He repeated his long-distance gold medal double at the World Championships but it was his win in the 10,000m which made him the oldest world champion in that event, at 32.
Source: Athletics - thesun.co.uk
