Mo Farah has scratched from the London Marathon on October 2. The four-time Olympic champion cited a hip injury that started 10 days ago.
“I’ve had extensive physio and treatment and done everything I can to be on the start line but it hasn’t improved enough to compete on Sunday,” Farah said in a statement.
The 39-year-old has not completed a marathon since 2019, when he finished fifth place at the London Marathon in 2:05:39. Afterwards, he planned to return to the track to defend his Olympic titles from Rio. But his 2021 10,000-meter season best of 27:47.04 was 19 seconds off of the standard, so Farah did not qualify.
However, Farah was coming off a win at the Big Half in London, where he ran 1:01:49.
“It’s really disappointing to have to withdraw after a good last few months and after my win at The Big Half but also because I love racing in front of my home crowd in London who always give all of us athletes such amazing support,” Farah said.
“We are so sorry that Sir Mo is not fit to run on Sunday,” said Hugh Brasher, the event director of the London Marathon. “We wish him a very speedy recovery and hope to see him running the 2023 TCS London Marathon in April next year.”
At next year’s London Marathon, Farah will be 40 years old. He has not indicated he will retire from his professional career, but Brasher has said that he would give Farah a retirement send-off if the British athlete decides to.
“The door will always be open to Mo—he is Britain’s greatest endurance athlete in terms of number of Olympic gold medals and world championship gold medals,” Brasher told The Guardian.
Chris Hatler is the Deputy Editor of Esquire. He previously served as the Senior Editor of Men’s Journal and Features Editor of Popular Mechanics.
