Athletics: Refugee Farah Strikes Gold

A difficult year for British athletics ended on an encouraging note at the European Cross-Country Championships in San Giorgio su Legnano, Italy, where Mohammed Farah became the first British runner for 10 years to win the senior men's title and Stephanie Twell led the junior women's team, whose members may be expected to hit their peak for the 2012 Olympics, to overall victory by claiming the individual gold medal in her race.

Victory for the 23-year-old Farah completed a breakthrough year for the Somalian refugee, who started competing only after fleeing the civil war in his home country. He won a silver medal in the 5,000 metres at the European Championships in August, which saw him voted the British athlete of the year.

The Newham club member hit the front after the start of the final 1,920m circuit and blazed his way to victory in the 9,950m race. He won by seven seconds in 27min 56sec from Portugal's Fernando Silva and the Spaniard Juan de la Ossa, and denied the Ukrainian Sergiy Lebid a sixth successive victory. He is the first Briton to win the title since Yorkshire's Jon Brown in 1996. Farah led Britain to fourth place in the team event, with France taking the title from Portugal and Spain.

"I've had to work hard for this goal and to achieve this. I spent a month preparing in South Africa," said Farah. "I felt confident but struggled a little at the start, they were all bunching, so I just decided to sit in and wait. At the bell I thought, 'You might as well just push now'."

Twell, a 17-year-old A-level student from Aldershot, held off Norway's Karoline Grovdal to take the 4,100m race by three seconds in 12min 33sec. Among those Twell beat was Ancuta Bobocel, Romania's defending champion who was third, and Emily Pidgeon, who until this year was considered to be Britain's best prospect for 2012. She finished fourth and, together with the sixth-placed Sian Edwards and Abby Westley in 10th place, helped Britain retain the team title.