London 2012 Olympics: How a love that went the distance took Mo Farah to the gold medal

When Mo Farah triumphed in the 10,000 metres he raced over to embrace his wife at the side of the track. David Cohen and Simon Freeman tell how her sacrifice and support helped him to Olympic glory
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As Mo Farah charged into the history books his wife Tania, heavily pregnant with twins, faced a battle of her own.

She had defied doctors orders to watch her husband’s 10,000m race, but leaving her seat in the stands to get down to the track on Saturday, she found her way blocked by a security official who did not believe she was Farah’s wife. “Sorry but you don’t have accreditation, I must ask you to leave,” he said.

But Tania, 28, was not letting anyone bar her way on the biggest night of her life. She stood her ground and caught the eye of a journalist who recognised her, and minutes later she was on the track being bear-hugged by her victorious husband as he wrapped her in a Union Jack and kissed her in front of an 80,000-strong crowd.

Farah, 29, said: “Seeing her on the track was the best moment of my life.” It was a fitting tribute to the woman whose love and support has been his foundation as he has relocated to the Kenyan highlands and to Oregon to train with his coach at high-altitude, far away from the west London streets he calls home. But in fact, Tania’s remarkable journey to be at Mo’s side in the cauldron of the Olympic stadium began 16 years ago when they met at school.

The story of their passionate love affair, and the crucial part their relationship has played in his success, can be told here for the first time through the eyes of those who know them best.

Mo’s father-in-law, Rob Nell, 60, a travel agent, proudly recalls the day he asked for their daughter’s hand in marriage. “He called us round and said, ‘Can I have the family together?’ The whole family sat around and he asked our permission to marry our daughter. That’s the sort of respectful person he is. His face was brimming ear-to-ear with a big smile when we said, ‘Of course’. ”

The pair met at Feltham Community College as teenagers after Mo became friendly with Tania’s older brother, Colin, who was as mad about football as he was. Mo was living with his aunt in Hounslow, having come to London at age eight from war-ravaged Somalia to be closer to his London-born father, Muktar, an IT consultant who was living here.

Mo knew very little English, except for the phrase “c’mon then”, which earned him a black eye on his first day of school. Tania’s mother, Nadia Nell, 51, a retired secretary, recalled that the chemistry between them was evident from the start.

“She was a couple of years below him at school, but I think he always liked her and they’d hang out a lot together. Later when Tania got into athletics as well, competing in the heptathlon for her school and her county, they got even closer. After school he went to St Mary’s College in Twickenham and Tania would visit him and they’d watch Prison Break together – they were obsessed with that show.

"The two of them went their own way for a while and had other relationships, but they always kept in touch, even when Tania had Rihanna. Mo adored Rihanna from the start and was always there for her. When he and Tania became romantically involved, Tania’s life took off, but they kept it very private and we weren’t told about it for over a year.”

Their wedding in April 2010 was a civil ceremony followed by a reception for 120 people at the four-star Richmond Hill Hotel. Mo asked his former PE teacher and mentor, Alan Watkinson to be his best man.

Mr Watkinson, 48, said: “I suppose I had become Mo’s father figure. He didn’t talk about his actual father much and his father wasn’t at his wedding, and when he needed things like visas to travel to athletics meetings outside the UK, I arranged it for him The wedding was an incredibly joyous occasion.”

But Tania would soon be asked to make life-changing personal sacrifices, moving from their house in Hampton Hill to a remote Kenyan village, and later to Portland, Oregon, as their lives were taken over by his gruelling 120-mile-a-week training at altitude routine.

“It wasn’t easy for Tania, being away from parents and friends,” said Mr Watkinson. “I think it helped that she knew what she was marrying into. And because she had been an athlete herself, she could buy into his dream of being the best long-distance runner in the world.”

But Mrs Nell disagreed. “I don’t think Tania expected it at all when she married Mo, but she learned quickly there were sacrifices to be made for his success. She seemed to adjust pretty quickly after the initial shock and always put Mo and his training first.

“She’s given up her life to support him, no question. They have been based in Portland for over a year since Mo’s coach Alberto Salazar has his elite training group there. The idea was to move up a few gears after the disaster in Beijing when he didn’t even make the final. But because they are such a tight-knit family, they are coping well. Rihanna’s getting on well at school in America, and Tania’s made a lot of friends in Portland. They are one unit, and wherever he goes they go, but we miss terribly not having them nearby.”

Incredibly, the Nells had to watch his gold-winning performance from their living room. Mrs Nell said: “I was trying online and couldn’t get through. It was going to cost £400 for the finals and that was too expensive for us. Mo only got issued two tickets and we didn’t want to hassle him for more, so we stayed home to watch it. I was screaming at the television and in tears at the end.”

Mr Watkinson had bagged a seat in the lottery and was inside the stadium near the long jump pit. “I don’t think I have been more nervous in my life,” he said. “Seeing Mo run, it was the culmination of a story that started with the PE lesson of a raw and talented 11-year-old and which ended with a gold medal in the London Olympics. To have had a hand in convincing Mo to take up running and then watching him win gold at the Games is incredible. I was jumping like a kid and screaming “Go on Mo!” tears running down my cheeks.” So did Farah’s parents watch their son’s moment of glory?

“To be honest,” said Mrs Nell, “we don’t know because although he talks to his mum in Somalia on the phone almost every day, and he really looks up to his father, he’s very private about them. We’ve never met his parents. He went back to Somalia a year ago to see his mum and he’s got an identical twin brother and other siblings who we don’t know.”

Since the drama of the weekend, Tania has been ordered by her doctors to stay at home and rest. They are concerned, she told her parents, that all the excitement could bring on the twins, due in September, a few weeks early.

That, of course, could be tricky, they acknowledge, as dad still has business to attend to: the men’s 5,000m first round is on Wednesday, the finals on Saturday. Farah is already the first Brit to win the 10,000m. Is it possible that he could blow the nation’s fuse and kick past the world-beating Kenyans and Ethiopians to win the 5,000m as well?

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