• Athletics

Farah sticking to London Marathon plan

Double Olympic champion Mo Farah has confirmed he will attend the London Marathon as planned, despite the increased security fears following events at the Boston Marathon.

At least three people were killed and more than 100 injured by the blasts near the finish of Monday's event in the United States, causing London race organisers to review their own security procedures in case of a similar incident.

Farah, the 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion, had previously confirmed that he would run half the distance at this Sunday's event in London - and those plans have not changed in light of the recent tragedy.

Farah's agent, Ricky Simms, told the Guardian: "I can confirm there is no change to our plans for Mo. He will be coming to London."

Prior to the explosions in Boston, Farah had spoken of his excitement about competing in the London event.

"The London marathon is one of the biggest marathon races in the world," he said. "It's special. It's quite exciting for me as I saw a lot of great athletes running it when I was a kid. And after the Olympics it will also be good to give something back to all the people who are going to come out on the streets and watch."

However, marathon runner Paula Radcliffe - whose own participation has been scuppered by injury - sounded a note of caution ahead of the April 21 race.

"It will raise so much emotion that people will want to stand up and show it's not knocked the city of Boston down, not knocked marathoning down," Radcliffe said, speaking to the BBC. "If we can be sure it's safe and secure for other events to go ahead, the vast majority will want to do that to help.

"It is a difficult situation. It seems very trivial to think about running a race when this has happened but on the other hand are you letting the terrorists win [by cancelling]?"

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