Farah heads to Kenyan hills for marathon preparation
Britain’s double Olympic and world 10,000m and 5,000m champion Mohammed Farah arrived in Kenya on Friday for four weeks of tough altitude training in the Rift Valley ahead of his London marathon debut in April.
The Somali-born runner will base his training in Iten, some 340km (211 miles) north-west of Nairobi, where he joins up with six other British athletes who arrived there earlier this month to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August.
The athletes are staying in a high-altiude training camp run by Kenyan-born former world half-marathon record holder, Lornah Kiplagat, where Farah has spent much of his winter training for the last six years.
The town, which sits at 2400m above sea level, is also home to some of Kenya’s finest marathon runners, including Wilson Kipsang, the current world men’s marathon record holder.
Farah will face Kipsang in a strong field to compete in the London marathon on April 13, where the 30-year-old will be making his full marathon debut.
Kipsang’s compatriot and former London marathon champion, Emmanuel Mutai, has predicted a tough debut for Farah, who has only raced up to the half-marathon distance — with his last run earning him a second-place finish in the Great North Run in Britain last September.