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SEASONAL DEBUT: Mo Farah

WORLD CHAMPION distance runner Mo Farah has labelled his 1500m foray at tomorrow’s Aviva International Match a “vital step” to taking Olympic gold at the London Games in six months’ time.
 
Twenty-eight-year-old Farah, who took 5000m gold and 10,000m silver at the World Championships in Daegu last summer, will embark on his first ever outing over the shorter distance in an Aviva GB & NI vest, in an effort to improve his speed in time for the summer’s Games.
 
The event at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, which will see the Aviva GB & NI Team perform on home soil for the last time before London, will also signify Farah’s first return to the scene of his 2009 triumph, when he broke the British 3000m record and set a new personal best time of 7:40.99.
 
Farah will be out for a repeat performance at Kelvin Hall tomorrow, where he hopes to receive a rousing send-off from the sell-out Glasgow crowd as his Olympic journey begins in earnest.
 
Farah, who lines up against the fastest man on the planet over 1500m indoors in 2011, Augustine Choge, said: “The Aviva International Match is a great event and I'm delighted to be here. The event is historically very strong and this year is going to be no different.
 
“It was my coach Alberto Salazar’s idea to race the shorter distance this weekend as he thinks it will help me to improve my speed and that could be really vital this summer.
 
“We’re very aware the Olympics could boil down to one final sprint for the line so it’s essential I get the speed work into my legs now.