Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah has given the clearest suggestion yet that he could return to the track to represent Great Britain at this year’s World Championships.
Farah quit the track at the end of the 2017 season to focus on the marathon, finishing third at last year’s London Marathon before taking his maiden title over 26.2 miles when smashing the European record in Chicago.
The road remains Farah’s primary focus, and he will return to the British capital for a third assault on the London Marathon next month.
However, after watching middle distance star Laura Muir dominate the European Indoor Championships in front of an adoring home crowd in Glasgow last weekend, the 35-year-old admitted he could be tempted to go for a fourth successive world 10,000m title, and seventh world gold in all, in Doha in the autumn.
"It all depends on the result in London (on 28 April),” Farah said. “I miss the sort of atmosphere Laura Muir got. You get it at the London Marathon but I do miss the track. I do miss representing my country.
"That's just me. If things are going well and I've got a chance to win a medal, then I'd love to come back and run for my country, but my aim now is to concentrate on the marathon.”
While the likes of Yomif Kejelcha and Samuel Tefera have impressed this winter, breaking the indoor world records for the mile and 1500m respectively, no one has yet emerged as an obvious candidate to fill the void left by Farah over the longer distances.
Between 2011 and 2017, Farah won ten of the 12 Olympic and world titles on offer over 5,000m and 10,000m, and the 26:49:51 he ran to win the 10,000m at the 2017 World Championships in London remains the fastest time over that distance since 2014.
"I had said to myself that I wanted to finish in London," he added. "I was thinking 'I just want to do marathons and it's going to get easier'. It's not easier.
"But seeing the [10,000m] results, it hasn't really changed. The athletes doing well are 1500m indoors, the mile but in terms of long distances, it hasn't really changed much, and now part of me is thinking 'Have I still got it?'"
