Mo Farah has reflected on his toughest career race, crediting his Kenyan rival for pushing him to his limits.
British icon Mo Farah has opened up about one of his serial Kenyan rivals during his hey days as a professional athlete and it’s not Eliud Kipchoge.
Mo Farah revealed that two-time African champion Caleb Ndiku was in fact, his great threat and he recalled the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China being the toughest of his career.
Despite winning gold, Mo Farah revealed that he was forced to put in more effort since his opponent, Ndiku looked very strong and ready to go for the gold medal. Ndiku would eventually win a silver in the historic 5000m race.
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The 2018 Chicago Marathon champion further noted that if Ndiku maintained the momentum, then he would not have won the gold medal since he was slowly starting to fade off in that particular race.
He recalled how tough it was keeping up the pace with the Kenyan long-distance star who has since retired but he expressed gratitude about having someone lethal like that in a race.
“Caleb was a great athlete and I’ve said often that when you race against athletes that are ruthless, who put themselves through the line, it’s hard to beat,” Mo Farah said as quoted by Times of India.
“And I remember that race; it was at the Beijing World Championships where he went in so hard in the race, and he almost broke me, and perhaps if he would have gone a little bit later, he would have beaten me.
“We went through one of the miles during the race in sub-four minutes, and then I think we ran the fastest 1k during that race. So, he did give me a tough race. But that’s what sport is about, giving people entertainment and giving people your best.”
High-performance coach and physiologist Barry Fudge, who worked with Mo Farah for sometime also admitted that the legend was indeed afraid of Ndiku.
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He widely regarded Mo Farah as the most decorated distance runner and it was through Fudge’s guidance that the six-time world champion was able to dominate races between 2011 and 2017.
Mo Farah further explained that he had data about his body and that’s how he managed to work well with Fudge since they were always focused on making things better.
