Athletics: Briton Farah targets one-hour world record in Brussels

[June 24, 2020]    (Reuters) - Four-times Olympic champion Mo Farah says he is targeting the one-hour world record at the AG Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels on Sept. 4, as he returns to the track for the first time since switching to road racing in 2017.

Long distance runner Mo Farah makes his trademark "Mobot" pose during a parade of British Olympic and Paralympic athletes through London September 10, 2012. REUTERS/Dan Kitwood

Athletes try to cover as much distance as possible in one hour in the event. The men's record of 21.285 km was set by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie in Ostrava in 2007.

The Brussels event is part of the revamped calendar of athletics meetings announced by the Diamond League due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Together with my training partner Bashir Abdi I'm going to attack the hour record at the AG Memorial Van Damme," Farah, 37, said in a statement  on the event's website.

Ethiopian world half-marathon record holder Ababel Yeshaneh and Birhane Dibaba will attempt to break the women's record of 18.517km set by Dire Tune in 2008.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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