Athletics: Vivian and Mo Farah to defend Great North Run 21km crowns

April 22, 2018 Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot celebrates after winning the Women's elite race REUTERS

London marathon winner Vivian Cheruiyot (Pictured) and Britain’s four-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion Mo Farah will defend their Great North Run 21km titles on September 9.

The two head to the North East longing to make history. Mo Farah won in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, and a fifth win would put him into the record books. Vivian targets a second win in three years in the race from Newcastle to South Shields. It is the second largest half-marathon in the world.

Mo said: “It’s something I look forward to every year, the crowds are always unbelievable and it’s a good course for racing.

“To be the best in the world you have to beat the best and it’s going to be no different here. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Vivian said: “It was a magnificent race when I won here for the first time in 2016 and I want to be on top of that podium again next month.”

Not bad for Vivian, who spent 20 years actively competing on the track. She started running while a Standard Four Pupil at Chemwabul Primary School in Keiyo South.

Vivian was born on September 11, 1983, and will celebrate her birth day on Friday next month. She is the third born in a family of eight and started to train in athletics while herding the family’s goats at the nearby Kaptagat Forest and trekking to their ancestral farmlands in Kerio Valley.

[Jonathan Komen and BBC]