Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah ends glittering career at Great North Run – ‘Running is what saved me’

Mo Farah pulled the curtain down on an incredible career after finishing fourth at the Great North Run on Sunday.

The four-time Olympic champion finished with a time of 1:03:28 – three minutes and 29 seconds behind Ethiopa’s Tamirat Tola, who won the race in 59 minutes and 58 seconds.

Somalia’s Bashir Abdi and Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris completed the podium with times of 1:01:20 and 1:01:54 respectively.

“All I know is running, and that is what made me happy for so many years.

“Running is everything to me. Running is what saved me.

“I’ve won it [The Great North Run] six times and had some amazing memories. It’s really important to come out here and give my support to the crowd.”

Elsewhere, the women’s race was won Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir with a time of 1:06:45, and Britain’s Charlotte Purdue came third.

There was British success in the men’s wheelchair race, won by British Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Daniel Sidbury, while Samantha Kinghorn secured gold in the women’s equivalent.

Farah ran the 13.1 miles between Newcastle and South Shields, a race that followed on from his final competitive appearance in London on September 3.

Farah will go down as one of the greatest British athletes of all time and currently holds the country’s records for the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, half marathon and marathon.

Arguably the greatest night in Farah’s career came on August 4, 2012 as part of the day dubbed ‘Super Saturday’ at London 2012.

Farah won 10,000m gold on the same day that Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford won gold in the women’s 800m and men’s long jump respectively.