By Victor Kanayo
Britain’s four-time Olympic champion, Mo Farah has withdrawn from his home London Marathon after suffering a hip injury.
Organisers said the six-time world champion was not fit to compete despite intensive treatment.
“I’ve been training really hard over the past few months and I’d got myself back into good shape and was feeling pretty optimistic about being able to put in a good performance,” Farah said in a statement.
“However, over the past 10 days I’ve been feeling pain and tightness in my right hip.
“I’ve had extensive physio and treatment and done everything I can to be on the Start Line but it hasn’t improved enough to compete on Sunday.”
His absence is a second blow to organisers in the space of a week after Kenya’s women’s world record holder and twice London Marathon champion Brigid Kosgei withdrew due to a minor hamstring injury.
Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion Eilish McColgan also withdrew this month on medical grounds while Ethiopia’s men’s world champion Tamirat Tola pulled out in August due to muscle fatigue.
Heritage Times HT reports that this was supposed to have been Farah’s first marathon since Chicago in 2019 as he has struggled with injuries.
He missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and was beaten by a club runner over 10k in London in May.
Farah, now 39, would have been a big attraction for locals as Britain’s finest distance runner.
The British runner revealed in a BBC documentary in July that he was illegally smuggled to the UK from Somalia as a child.
He also said he had hidden the truth about his background and even his name is not real.
