Nine-time Grammy Award winner Rihanna says she turned down an offer to perform at the Super Bowl in 2019 to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.

Rihanna told Vogue in a story published Wednesday that she would have been an "enabler" if she had performed at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.

"I couldn't dare do that," Rihanna told the magazine in August. "For what? Who gains from that? Not my people.

"I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler. There's things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way."

Maroon 5 was the halftime performer, with Big Boi and Travis Scott also taking part.

Rihanna wasn't the only celebrity to refuse a role at the Super Bowl over Kaepernick. Comedian Amy Schumer posted on Instagram in October 2018 that, as a show of support for the quarterback, she wouldn't appear in a Super Bowl commercial.

Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since 2016. His decision to kneel during the national anthem before games helped launch a social justice movement in the league that led to the Inspire Change initiative, through which NFL owners have agreed to contribute up to $89 million over six years toward causes players were supporting.

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will be the co-headliners of the Super Bowl LIV halftime show in Miami this season. They will be the first artists to perform during the NFL's signature event since the league entered into a partnership with Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by rapper, businessman and activist Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, to lead its endeavors in music and entertainment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said he regretted shoving offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on the sideline during a moment of frustration in Sunday night's loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

"We're good,'' Kelce said Wednesday. "Me and Coach Bieniemy have a very close relationship. I love him. He's helped me out tremendously as a person, as a professional and I'm sure he'll keep doing that throughout the rest of my career. ... I love the guy. That will never change. I appreciate him being on my tail to get me going.

"As far as what happened on the sideline, sometimes in football you get a little heated with your brothers or your coaches.''

Kelce shoved Bieniemy on the sideline after he dropped a difficult but catchable pass early in the game. The two had to be pulled apart -- Kelce by guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif; Bieniemy by tackle Cam Erving.

Kelce soon returned to hug the offensive coordinator.

"He's like a father figure, in terms of being there for me on the field,'' Kelce said. "We're wired a little bit the same when it comes to our competitive edge. ... It's something immediately I regretted and I just wanted to make it good and let him know that, 'You know what? I'm ready to rock and roll for you.'"

Kelce was frustrated at other points during the 19-13 loss, shouting more than once at officials after an opponent wasn't penalized for pass interference.

He had problems controlling his temper during games earlier in his career. He was ejected from a 2016 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars for picking a penalty flag off the ground and throwing it at an official.

"I haven't felt like that in a while,'' Kelce said. "That's definitely something I've been thinking about a lot, just how to handle a lot of those situations. Looking back, seeing how I connected the dots after maybe a frustrating play and how to kind of [narrow] in and be able to attack on the next play with a clear mind.

"It's football. It's not always going to go your way, so I've just got to maintain the level of focus and the level of excitement that I have for the game.''

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he felt no need to calm Kelce during the game.

"He's played this game for a long time and he understands how to have success,'' Mahomes said. "Obviously, I'm going to try to pump him up and have him ready on every single play because he can get open on every single play.

"He knows how to handle this game. He knows how to have success. I'm going to let him go through what he needs to go through in order to do that.''

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman said Wednesday that he will apologize to Baker Mayfield for wrongly saying the Cleveland Browns quarterback had refused to shake his hand before the coin toss on Monday Night Football.

Sherman told NFL.com that the snub had fueled him during San Francisco's 31-3 win over the Browns. Video obtained by ESPN on Tuesday, however, showed the two shaking hands at midfield.

Sherman backtracked Wednesday, saying he would be reaching out to Mayfield to apologize.

"It's definitely my bad," Sherman told the Pat McAfee Show. "I never want anybody to have to deal with some stuff that they didn't do. And so, you know, the questions that he's gonna get and the annoying, nonsense questions about some stuff that happened in a game that's already been done, you know, sure he'll get an apology for that. I'll probably reach out to him via text or social media to actually get a hold of him and talk to him ... on the phone.

"He definitely deserves an apology, and that's my bad on that."

So Richard Sherman claims Baker Mayfield refused to shake his hand at the coin toss. This video seems to indicate otherwise: pic.twitter.com/4CgOsLKLPL

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) October 8, 2019

After Wednesday's practice, Mayfield said he hadn't yet checked his phone, but that "it was nice" of Sherman to say that he would apologize.

"I know what I did," Mayfield said. "That's the one time the camera and something recording me has gone in my favor."

Mayfield said he never attempted to show any disrespect toward Sherman.

"I respect him and who he is as a player," Mayfield said. "Has been for a while. In no way did I mean it like that."

Sherman said he may have remembered the moment differently or could've described it more accurately.

"Sometimes you remember things a little differently than it happened," Sherman said. "Obviously it still motivated me the same way."

The Philadelphia 76ers said two fans were removed from the stands at Tuesday's preseason game for "their continuing disruption of the fan experience," but the fans say they were kicked out for showing support for Hong Kong.

The team and the Wells Fargo Center both released statements Wednesday saying they received multiple complaints about the two fans prior to their ejection.

"At last evening's game, following multiple complaints from guests and verbal confrontations with others in attendance, two individuals were warned by Wells Fargo Center staff about their continuing disruption of the fan experience. Ultimately, the decision was made by Wells Fargo Center personnel to remove the guests from the premises, which was accomplished without incident," the 76ers said.

Sam Wachs and his wife held up signs that read "Free Hong Kong'' and "Free HK'' during the 76ers' game against a Chinese team, the Guangzhou Loong Lions.

Wachs told NBC10 in Philadelphia that security guards confiscated the signs before ejecting the couple in the second quarter after Wachs shouted, "Free Hong Kong!"

A source close to the situation told ESPN's Tim Bontemps that the Sixers were unaware of the incident until after the fans were ejected.

In its statement, the Wells Fargo Center said the fans were given three warnings prior to their removal.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, with a since-deleted tweet, showed support last week for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, straining the relationship between the NBA and China.

The protests in Hong Kong were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed suspects to be sent to China to face trial. Activists saw that as a threat to the legal rights that Hong Kong residents have under the current "one country, two systems" framework.

Guangzhou will face the Wizards in Washington on Wednesday night.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Adam Duvall will start in Game 5 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals after coming off the bench in each of the first four games of the series.

Duvall, who leads the Braves with 5 RBIs in the series, will bat sixth and start in left field Wednesday against Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty.

Left-handed-hitting Matt Joyce, who started each of the first four games, will be available off the bench.

Despite not starting yet in this series, Duvall has delivered some critical hits for the Braves. His two-run pinch-hit home run off Flaherty in Game 2 provided Atlanta with some much-needed insurance in a 3-0 victory.

Duvall also had a clutch hit in Game 3, when he hit a two-run go-ahead single in the ninth inning to lift the Braves to a 3-1 victory.

The Minnesota Twins are expected to exercise a $12 million contract option for slugger Nelson Cruz in the next few days, sources confirmed to ESPN's Buster Olney on Wednesday.

Cruz, a 39-year-old designated hitter, was seen by players and staffers as having a positive influence on the clubhouse this season. He belted 41 home runs to become just the third player in team history to reach the 40-homer mark, joining Harmon Killebrew (seven times) and Brian Dozier (once).

Despite two stints on the injured list, Cruz, who made $14 million in 2019, also had 108 RBIs and a .311 batting average this season.

He became the 57th player in major league history to hit 400 career home runs. Cruz is also the 26th player in baseball history with four 40-home run seasons, as he also accomplished the feat from 2014 to 2016 with Baltimore and Seattle.

MLB Network first reported that the Twins were expected to pick up the option for next season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON -- Months ago, when the Washington Nationals weren't even a .500 baseball team and the Los Angeles Dodgers were running away with the National League, a wise executive looked at the landscape of the league and offered a prediction. "The only thing that's going to stop the Dodgers," he said, "is the Nationals in a short series."

The nightmare scenario of a first-round playoff loss has not come to fruition, not entirely, and yet after Washington's 6-1 victory in Game 4 that sent their NL Division Series back to Dodger Stadium for a win-or-go-home Game 5 on Wednesday, it felt awfully prescient. Any team, even one as consistently excellent as the 106-win Dodgers, is vulnerable when facing the sort of elite starting pitching the Nationals possess. That truth is exacerbated even more by the unforgiving nature of a five-game series.

Major league baseball's postseason is the scorpion-and-frog parable come to life. In an ideal playoff for the league, the best teams -- that is, those whose 162-game excellence lent credence to the importance of the regular season and proved a superior level of talent and execution -- would advance. It is against MLB's interest for the Dodgers, a star brand in the country's second-biggest media market, to lose. The playoffs don't care. This is their nature.

Which, for the Dodgers, led to a long flight home early Tuesday morning. If a five-game series is unrelenting, a one-game series, which is essentially what they now face, is even more fraught with peril. There is, quite literally, no room for error(s). One can end a season. All 27 outs carry extreme value. Especially when the opposing pitcher is Stephen Strasburg.

The Nationals would pose a bad matchup for any team in a short series because of their starting pitching. With Strasburg, Game 4 hero Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin, Washington entered the playoffs with the ability to unleash a starter and watch him throw six or seven or even more brilliant innings. Strasburg did it in a Game 2 win. Scherzer did it in a Game 4 win, on short rest, no less. Strasburg returns to face Walker Buehler, who blanked the Nationals in the Dodgers' Game 1 victory.

His presence only slightly mitigates the Dodgers' misfortune of facing Washington. Fifty games into the season, remember, the Nationals looked cooked. They were 19-31 -- just more of last year, when they sleepwalked to an October spent at home. From that point on, they were almost unstoppable, finishing tied for an NL-best record. The other team that went 74-38 from May 23 on: the Dodgers.

Who against any other team in the NL would feel very good about their starting pitching, by the way. Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu each turned in an excellent 2019 season. All will be available in Game 5, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts taking the all-hands-on-deck approach that makes elimination games so enjoyable to watch.

At least for those who don't see the four numbers 1988 and start thinking of four-letter words. That's the last time the Dodgers won a championship, and after seven NL West titles and back-to-back World Series losses, this feels a most inopportune time to run into a team as well-equipped as the Nationals to handle them. Don't forget, the Nationals were a Juan Soto single and Trent Grisham error away from being the ones bounced in the wild-card game.

Now the Dodgers find themselves caught in the tangle of short-series necessity. The Dodgers wanted to save Buehler for Game 1 of the NL Championship Series, which starts Friday. Now he wouldn't be available until Game 3. These are the machinations of the postseason, part of what makes each so fascinating and unique. Individual performances matter. Small samples are vital. A.J. Pollock is a very good baseball player. Going 0-for-12 with 10 strikeouts in this series has been a debacle. NL MVP favorite Cody Bellinger hasn't been much better, going 3-for-15 with barely a whit of power.

Another small sample of note: six innings, one hit, no runs, three walks, eight strikeouts. That was Buehler's line in Game 1. "There's not a lot to it," he said. "We've got to win a game, and if we don't, we go home."

Yeah. That about covers it. And after watching the Dodgers run roughshod through the NL all summer and into the fall, it's a stunning proposition to consider. It's also life in a game that isn't always fair. In a short series, the slightest stumble can register on the Richter scale. A team that wins 106 games and a team that wins 93 games can be equals. Baseball norms can vanish amid the urgency. Nightmares can become very, very real.

LOS ANGELES -- Walker Buehler's bravado is as discernible as it is distinguished -- but his first two encounters with Clayton Kershaw made him uncommonly uneasy.

The first took place in the summer of 2015, shortly after the Los Angeles Dodgers selected him in the first round, when Buehler paid his first visit to Dodger Stadium. It just so happened to coincide with Kershaw's start day. Buehler already knew about Kershaw's uncompromising routine. He made it a point to distance himself, but he still felt consumed by it.

"I remember not wanting to be in the way," Buehler said, "and feeling like I was in the way, even though I was on the other end of the dugout."

The second occurred late in the 2017 season, during Buehler's first day as a major leaguer. Buehler, then only 23, formally introduced himself to Kershaw and instantly felt self-conscious. He later overanalyzed every aspect of their short interaction.

"You don't even feel yourself speaking," Buehler said. "He's so well-known and so respected that you just don't want him not to like you."

Buehler and Kershaw will probably both pitch in the fifth and final game of this National League Division Series on Wednesday, a make-or-break affair that begins with the first pitch at 8:37 p.m. ET on TBS. Buehler will start -- opposing Washington Nationals dynamo Stephen Strasburg -- and Kershaw is expected to follow him out of the bullpen, symbolizing what has been a gradual-yet-obvious changing of the guard atop the Dodgers' rotation.

Over the past couple of years, while Buehler established himself among the game's most electrifying pitchers and Kershaw transitioned into the back half of his career, the two forged a mutually beneficial relationship.

Kershaw, 31, and Buehler, 25, are separated by six years, a relatively small gap that can at times feel like a lifetime in this era. Kershaw came up in an age that suddenly feels antiquated, when terms such as "small ball" and "feel" were still pillars of the sport's vernacular. Buehler, the product of a progressive pitching program at Vanderbilt University, is rising at a time when advanced analytics are dominating the industry. Buehler's embrace of information has piqued Kershaw's interest; Kershaw's old-school values have influenced Buehler.

"A lot of times, they challenge each other," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "It's forced them both to grow."

Buehler is effusive in his praise of Kershaw, both of his continued success and of his unwavering process. But he is also resolute in carving out his own identity. Buehler can be brash and assertive, but he is surprisingly self-aware and pragmatic. He sat in the dugout as the 2019 regular season was winding down and talked about how he isn't necessarily in awe of Kershaw, but he is driven by the prospect of someday residing on equal footing. Buehler sees Kershaw as his peer, perhaps not unlike the way Kobe Bryant used to view Michael Jordan.

"I think people can be critical of somebody saying that, obviously. I'm in my second full year in the major leagues, and that guy's won more Cy Youngs than I have seasons," Buehler said. "But at the same time, he was 25 years old once, too. I think that's what younger guys have a tough time with. Michael Jordan was a 21-year-old, too, you know? I just think about it that way and try to progress at the level I can and do what I can. And if you can help me move forward, that's fantastic. But I'm not just going to emulate everything someone else did and expect to become who they are. I don't think that's how the world works. You can't just copy everything Apple does, right, and expect to be Apple."

The Dodgers instantly saw the makings of a potential star in Buehler. They made him a September call-up only 14 months after he returned from his post-draft Tommy John surgery, then arranged for him to spend some offseason time in Dallas working out with Kershaw. Watching Kershaw, the Dodgers believed, would set a new bar for Buehler's regimen.

Buehler was impressed, but he quickly learned that emulating the sheer volume of Kershaw's weightlifting sessions would not work for him. Instead, he came to view the experience as an opportunity to interact with the three-time Cy Young Award winner on a more personal level. Buehler didn't incorporate any new methods into his routine, but in Kershaw, he saw a model for consistency and intensity with the mundane tasks that are often taken for granted.

"I just think being around a guy like that does nothing but help you," Buehler said. "If you're not a baseball player -- if you're just an average, normal person, working a job -- being around Clayton Kershaw makes you a better person. Just learning to be a professional baseball player from him is the next step in that process."

Buehler and Kershaw slowly got to know each other throughout the 2018 season, as Buehler's ascendance made him worthy of starting the divisional tiebreaker and Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. Over the course of 2019, amid a season that saw them combine for a 30-9 record and a 3.14 ERA in 360 2/3 innings, they grew closer.

Kershaw has admitted to going a little more out of his way to mentor young players in recent years, and Roberts has noticed him spending more one-on-one time with teammates. But it isn't specific to Buehler. They aren't constantly grabbing dinner on the road or sharing trade secrets to which others aren't privy. It's a casual friendship that has developed organically, one of several within a Dodgers clubhouse that has seamlessly blended older players with younger ones.

"This forced heir, forced mentee thing -- I think it's all silly," Buehler said. "I'm 25 years old. I'm not 16 looking for, like, a second father figure. I enjoy being around Clayton. I feel very lucky to be a Los Angeles Dodger and have him as a teammate. But he's not, like, a dad to me. It's just not how it's gonna happen. We're teammates."

Kershaw bought Buehler a suit for the All-Star Game's red-carpet ceremony this past summer. When the entire team dressed in elaborate costume near the end of the regular season, Kershaw and Buehler collaborated on a "Zoolander" theme. Most of their dialogue, however, has taken place in the dugout while others are pitching. Kershaw has helped Buehler become more intent about scouting opponents, which helped Buehler pitch with more conviction this season. Through Buehler, Kershaw has become more fluent in analytics, which accelerated his evolution.

"Walker doesn't need a lot of help, you know," Kershaw said. "He probably knows more about pitching than I do, just in terms of the mechanics part of it and the process of how to create velocity or how to create spin, all this stuff. He's probably, I guess you could say, a little more new-age than I am. I like listening to him. I like learning from him."

Buehler is a 25-year-old, unmarried right-hander with an explosive fastball. Kershaw is a 31-year-old, married father of two who now relies heavily on breaking pitches. Kershaw has long been considered the second coming of Sandy Koufax, whereas Buehler seems to more closely resemble the next Justin Verlander. It's a connection that wouldn't exist without the forced relationships of team sports but one that has nonetheless become fruitful.

Kershaw has been among several Dodgers veterans who have been disarmed by Buehler's candidness and arrogance.

He has come to find him endearing.

"He grows on you," Kershaw said. "He kind of wears you down."

They're each tasked with ensuring that this dream season -- of 106 regular-season victories, 12 walk-offs and 279 home runs -- continues into the next round. It'll be up to Buehler and Kershaw to outduel Strasburg -- and potentially Patrick Corbin -- and tame the potent bats of Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto.

Buehler will start, but Kershaw will be waiting, eager to help if needed.

It has become a theme.

"He's there to kind of be an ear," Buehler said, "and at the same time just tell you you're being an idiot."

Watch Eliud Kipchoge attempt to make history and break the two-hour barrier for the marathon in Vienna

If Eliud Kipchoge goes one second per mile faster than during his Breaking2 run in Monza in 2017, we will see a sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna this weekend.

The date of the Kenyan marathon star’s INEOS 1:59 Challenge has been confirmed as Saturday October 12, with organisers saying conditions “are looking optimal” for race day.

The exact start time is set to be confirmed the day before and fans will be able to witness live Kipchoge’s attempt at making more history via the AW website as we will host a live stream of the action, provided by the INEOS 1:59 YouTube channel.

WATCH LIVE:

Olympic champion Kipchoge came close to breaking the barrier when he ran 2:00:25 for 26.2 miles at Nike’s specially-created event two years ago and since that time trial in Italy he has gone on to break the official marathon world record with his time of 2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018.

In Vienna he will use many of the same techniques as in his Monza run – such as a constant phalanx of world-class pacemakers, including the Ingebrigtsen brothers and Bernard Lagat, and carbon fibre shoes – plus maybe one or two new innovations.

The attempt is to be held on a multi-lap, 9.6km course centred on Hauptallee – a long, straight and tree-lined avenue which runs through the heart of The Prater, a large public park in the Austrian capital.

Each lap will involve Kipchoge running two 4.3km out-and-back stretches, with the turning points coming at the Lusthaus and Praterstern roundabouts at either end of the Hauptallee avenue.

Read more in a blog post by AW editor Jason Henderson here.

If the two-hour barrier for the marathon falls on Saturday, it won’t be an official world record but will generate global coverage for athletics and will inspire runners in every corner of the planet

For years experts have described the sub-two-hour marathon as the “impossible barrier”. Not since the 1950s, when excitement grew over the prospect of the first sub-four-minute mile, has such anticipation surrounded a potential athletics achievement. The feat of running 68 seconds per 400m, or 4:35 for each mile, for an entire 26.2 miles has been thought to be beyond the ability of any man alive, or even at anyone in the future.

Mo Farah, the European record-holder with 2:05:11, describes the pace needed as “mind blowing”, whereas the athlete who is gearing up to attack the mark, Eliud Kipchoge, likens a successful bid to “landing on the moon for the first time”.

Kipchoge arrived in Vienna this week ahead of an attempt on the two-hour barrier at the city’s Prater park on Saturday morning. The 34-year-old Kenyan clocked 2:00:25 in the Nike-backed attempt in Monza, Italy, in 2017 and has the tantalising prospect of trying to go just one second per mile quicker this weekend at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.

The attempt has divided opinion in the sport. Some pour scorn on the attempt. “It’s not athletics as I know it,” one expert told me. “I hope you don’t give it too much space in your magazine,” another added.

This is because the conditions have been crafted in Kipchoge’s favour. The course is expected to be faster than big city marathons such as London and Berlin – and even flatter than the Monza race course used in 2017 (pictured below). A phalanx of elite pacemakers, including the Ingebrigtsen brothers from Norway and Bernard Lagat from the United States, will roll in and out of the time trial, maintaining an arrow shape in front of Kipchoge the whole time to help the Kenyan’s aerodynamics. On his feet, meanwhile, are the latest Nike Vaporfly shoes – although the footwear is widely available and used by elite and recreational runners around the world.

I have no problem with these factors. Over the years I’ve noticed there are what I call ‘sub-two pessimists’ and ‘sub-two optimists’. I’ve always fallen into the latter category and this is partly because I thought future attempts would take place on synthetic tracks and in artificially created cool and windless environments by athletes who never got injured due to improvements in science and medicine.

I am lucky enough to be going to Vienna this weekend to watch the event live. I am hardly the only enthusiast either with millions of intrigued runners and fans tuning into the coverage to see how it plays out.

As a child in the 1970s the idea of someone breaking the barrier first caught my imagination in the Michael Winner movie The Games. On the eve of a fictional Olympic Games, a runner called Harry Hayes played by Michael Crawford is urged to go for the ‘two-hour marathon” by his coach, played by Sir Stanley Baker. It is all played out in tongue-in-cheek fashion in the make-believe world of cinema, but here we are, half a century later, possibly about to see it for real.

During my life I have seen the marathon record tumble, too. In the 1980s, it hovered in the 2:08 zone courtesy of Steve Jones (below) and Rob de Castella. Carlos Lopes then brought it down to 2:07:12 before Belayneh Dinsamo and Ronaldo da Costa took it into 2:06 territory.

At the turn of the millennium, Khalid Khannouchi ran a couple of 2:05 world records followed by Paul Tergat and Haile Gebrselassie bringing it inside 2:05 and, in 2008, below 2:04. Since then, Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto improved it further as a flurry of record-breaking performances culminated in Kimetto running 2:02:57 in 2014.

Last year, Kipchoge set the current world record with 2:01:39. The Olympic champion is regarded as a class above everyone else in the marathon. Or rather was, until Kenenisa Bekele came within two seconds of his record in Berlin this month.

When Paula Radcliffe ran a ground-breaking 2:15:25 women’s world record to win the London Marathon in 2003 I was reminded by Mel Watman, one of my predecessors as editor of AW, that Jim Peters became the first man to break the 2:20 barrier in 1953 and at the time it was inconceivable that a woman would ever finish a marathon in one piece let alone in a time quicker than the best men of the day.

This weekend’s attempt in Vienna will not count for record purposes, although the IAAF president Seb Coe is not opposed to the event. “I’m pretty relaxed about this,” he said a few days ago in Doha. “Anything that attracts attention to our sport within reasonable boundaries is good.

“It attracts interest and excitement. It is a barrier and is not something that would be ratified as a world record. And I have encouraged people to be creative and think outside the box. If people are inspired to start running because of it, then that’s great.”

Despite all the talk of weather conditions, pacemakers and controversial footwear, the biggest factor by far is Kipchoge’s form and fitness. No one quite knows how well his training has gone in recent months in Kenya. On Saturday, we will find out.

If he does achieve it, expect the floodgates will open. When Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile he said prophetically: “Apres moi, les deluge” – and he was right.

Kipchoge definitely believes others will follow. So does Farah. “If Eliud does it there will be so many more people believing that they can then do it,” Farah reckons.

“It’ll be the same as when Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile. He was the first to do that but years later I was doing it at the end of my races, like at the Worlds in Moscow in 2013,” he adds.

“The more you believe, the more it is possible.”