Posted on 08/12/2012 5:33:52 AM PDT by the scotsman
'Four weeks ago at Crystal Palace, in a cold, empty stadium long since deserted by the crowds who had earlier watched him win a Diamond League 5,000m race, Mo Farah stepped back out onto the track and once again pulled on his running spikes.
It was closing in on midnight, the lights low, the only people left in there were his coach Alberto Salazar, training partner Dathan Ritzenhein and a few of us journos filing late stories.
As we watched on from the dark stands, Salazar poised on the infield with stopwatch and clipboard, Farah and Ritzenhein threw themselves into a brutal session - a 3,000m time trial, a brief recovery and then four lots of 200m sprints, each completed in exactly 26 seconds and separated only by a 200m jog.
What was it Muhammad Ali said? "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
Farah shares more than Olympic gold with the great man. Here in London's Olympic Stadium, almost exactly a week after his 10,000m triumph provided a memorable crescendo to Britain's Super Saturday, the harvest of that cruel regime bore the most beautiful fruit.
Dance under the lights Farah did. Set against almost unreal ferment and cacophony inside the Olympic Stadium, his bug-eyed, teeth-gritted sprint down the home straight to 5,000m gold was a fitting final act to a fortnight like no other.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
yes-ferocious training...in America...with an American coach...and an American teammate...
Aye.
With God-given talent and British grit.
Farah has benefited from his American connection, but he moved there only in 2011, and was already British, European outdoor, European indoor, European team champion at both 5000 and 10000m. As well as European cross-country champion.
Yes, so many of these Olympic champions come out of nowhere.
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