Mo Farah beaten by Kenenisa Bekele in Great North Run thriller

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele saw off double world and Olympic champion Mo Farah’s late surge to win the Great North Run in a thrilling sprint finish.
Former world marathon champion and BBC Sport expert
“That defeat is going to give Mo fire as he heads into his winter training because he doesn’t like to lose.

“He needs to learn to study the course beforehand because I don’t think he realized how narrow the home straight was.

“And he needs to learn to relax when running downhill because the race was won on that downhill section.”

Britain’s Farah, 30, chased down Bekele in the last 400m in a great finale but was pipped to the line by one second.
Another Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie, was a distant third after falling behind in the last of the 13.1 miles.
“I’m disappointed but I was second to a great athlete,” said Farah after finishing in one hour and 10 seconds.
The sight of Farah and Bekele fighting it out in the last 200m was a fitting conclusion to what had been an eagerly anticipated race from Newcastle upon Tyne to South Shields.
The three distance-running greats – Farah, Bekele and Gebrselassie – boast 12 world titles and seven Olympic gold medals between them and were together until 31-year-old Bekele, competing in his first half marathon, made his break down a steep slope.
“When Kenenisa went with a mile to go, I thought the pace was ridiculous,” said Farah, who won 5,000m and 10,000m gold at the World Championships in Moscow last month.
“I thought I could come back. It came to the last 200m, right to the line. It was a great race and a great finish.”
Gebrselassie, 40, could not keep up with the younger pair but his time of 1:01:41 was still a world record over the distance for over-40s.

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