Defar & Farah win in New Orleans
New Orleans, USA – Meseret Defar of Ethiopia of Mo Farah of the UK won the New Orleans men and women’s half marathon races respectively here today.
Mo Farah set a British record as he outsprinted Ethiopia’s Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam to win the race.
Farah’s unofficial time of 60 minutes 59 seconds was four seconds quicker than Nick Rose’s previous record set in 1985.
The double Olympic champion formed a breakaway duo with Gebremariam and they held a ten-second lead over the chasing pack at the halfway stage.
Farah ensured the race came down to a sprint finish and utilised his track speed to edge the former world cross country champion.
Farah recently announced that he would run half of the London marathon in April as a tool for developing his speed ahead of the track season.
The run was not his fastest over the 13.2 mile distance, however, as he ran a time of 60 minutes 23 seconds in New York in 2011 but that time cannot count as a record because of the course’s gradient.
Scott Overall was the second Briton home in seventh, while Helen Clitheroe finished fourth in the women’s race – won by Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar.
Source: ESPN.co.uk
