Euro Award For Mo

6 OCT2011

Mo Farah has been named as the men's European Athlete of the Year 2011 by European Athletics. The pinnacle achievement of Farah's 2011 was undoubtedly winning the gold medal in the 5000m at the recent World Championships in Daegu, South Korea - becoming the first European athlete since Germany's Dieter Baumann at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to win a global title at the distance. A silver medal in the 10,000m at the same championships underlined the 28-year-old's coming of age on the world stage in 2011.

The year began in superb fashion for Farah when he set a European indoor record over 5000m at the Aviva Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, circling 25 laps of the National Indoor Arena in 13:10.60. He successfully defended his 3000m title at the European Athletics indoor championships in Paris in March.

As winter turned to summer, the self-confessed Arsenal fan was again breaking records. He ran a European 10,000m record of 26:46.57 when winning at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon, in June and in July he set a 2011 world-leading 5000m mark of 12:53.11 in Monaco, a time which ranked him second on the European all-time lists for the event as well as being a UK record.

Farah becomes the sixth UK athlete to win the men's category since its inception in 1993.