Great Britain & Northern Ireland’s Olympic champions Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford were in confident mood as they spoke to the media ahead of today's Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham.
Farah, who has won both the 5000m and 10,000m at the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships, has his own British record of 8:08.07 in his sights when he races over 2 miles at the Barclaycard Arena, and hasn’t ruled out an assault on the world record of 8:04.35 set by Kenenisa Bekele at the same event in 2008.
He said: “This is my first race of 2015 and I’m excited and really looking forward to it. I’ve done some great training out there [in Ethopia] so I just need to put it together. My first aim is to try and go for a British record and then I’ll see what I can do after that, maybe even go for Bekele’s time. If I can run the last lap fast then maybe, we’ll see.”
Farah sees the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix as an important race as he looks ahead to defending his world titles in Beijing in August.
He continued: “For me 2015 is about making that right start. Having a good start and continuing that through the summer. This year is the World Championships and hopefully I can go out there and try to defend my world titles.”
Olympic, European and Commonwealth long jump champion Rutherford will compete in his only indoor event of the year at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix and is hoping for a strong performance to set him up for the outdoor season when he will look to complete his medal collection with a World Championships title.
He said: “I jumped over 8 metres here last year and I’m hoping for something similar. It will be slightly different this year as I’m a bit heavier and a bit stronger so we’re going to trial that and see how it goes. This is a bit of a tester for me but I don’t compete to come last, I’m still going to try and win.
Not many people have a full collection of medals, although me and the World Championships don’t get on well, but I’m hopeful of rectifying that this year. I’m a bit older and wiser now and I jump a lot more consistently than I used to, so hopefully I can take that title. I’d say I’ve maybe got three World Championships left in me, so I’ll have three bites of the cherry to get the grand slam.”