Hot on the heels of his gold and silver at the world championships, Britain’s Mo Farah is keen to attempt a distance double at next year’s London Olympics.
Farah won the 5 000 metres world title in Daegu in September and narrowly missed out on the 10 000 gold at the championships when he was overtaken in the final straight by Ethiopia’s Ibrahim Jeilan.
“There is a still a good chance (I will run both events) but I just have to stay injury-free, stay focused, keep doing what I’m doing, keep racing, then my coach and I will decide when we get close to the Olympics,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“I would like to do both but then who knows (coach) Alberto (Salazar). Alberto could say just do one and I could do one. I’ll just wait to hear what the coach says.”
Since Farah moved his family to Oregon in the U.S. and teamed up with coach Alberto Salazar he has become one of Britain’s best hopes for Olympic glory.
Under three-time New York marathon winner Salazar, the 28-year-old set a European 10 000 record of 26 minutes 46.57 seconds and finished the season as the fastest man over 5 000.
Farah said he planned to qualify to run in both events in London and the final decision would be made a few days before the Olympics commence.
He dismissed the notion that competing in both events at the July 27 – Aug. 12 Games could potentially endanger his medal hopes.
“It’s not a risk. It just depends on how you recover and when you come off the race,” Farah told Reuters. “It’s going to be exciting but I don’t know what the coach will say about it. I’m looking forward to it.”

MENTALLY TOUGHER
Farah said the pain of missing out on medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, where he finished sixth in his heat, has made him physically and mentally tougher ahead of his home Olympics.
“I believe I learned a lot from that,” the Somali-born runner said. “Beijing is something that’s opened my eyes. Obviously, I went out there and didn’t do as well as I wanted. I was very disappointed.
“It’s helped me a lot. I’ve become a world champion and if we look back before, I wasn’t there. I didn’t quite have it. But now, I have what it takes and I’m a lot more confident and winning a lot more races. Before I went to Beijing, I wasn’t winning any races,” he said.
Farah, who moved to Britain when he was eight years old, is now one of the most recognisable track athletes in the country thanks in part to his beaming, wide smile.
Yet nothing prepared him for the reaction he received when he visited Somalia in September with his wife Tania and six-year-daughter Rhianna.
“It was like Beatle-mania, that’s the only way I can describe it,” Tania said. “People were jumping on the cars, we were bombarded, the whole time we were there we couldn’t go out in public and the word just spread.
“There isn’t a great deal of media (in Somalia) but the word through the villages spread like wildfire and before we knew it we couldn’t leave the hotel we were staying in.
“I felt a little bit unsafe but it wasn’t an issue of security, people were just excited to see him,” she added.
Capitalising on the fame that has followed his success on the track, Farah and Tania have launched the Mo Farah Foundation to help distribute aid in war-torn Somalia.
“When I became a world champion … I said to myself: ‘Give back something to those kids out there that are starving’,” Farah said.
“My heart is still very close to those people and I just thought, look we’ve got to do something.”