Blincoe blow for Mayoral Mile

Second-ranked New Zealand miler Adrian Blincoe has withdrawn from Saturday night's Mayoral Mile in Wanganui.
Blincoe, a 3min 54.1 man, says he has lost a week's training because of a hip-back injury and has to return to tough basics to regain his peak for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, where he will run the 1500m for New Zealand.
But that news has been counter-balanced to some extent by the continuing good news from across the Tasman, where top coach Nic Bideau says that not only his star charge Craig Mottram is ready to run as well as 3.52, but that his other "charge", United kingdom runner Mo Farah, "is ready to run a personal best."
Farah, also preparing for the Commonwealth Games, has a best of 3.56.49.
"Mo is training very well. He could run a personal best," Bideau said yesterday.
Blincoe regrets that he cannot run Saturday's mile. "I ran down there a couple of weeks ago and won, and I loved the track. My back's okay now, but I have missed a week of training, so this week we decided to really hit it hard to help with the Games build-up, and that mean's I won't be able to race on Saturday.
"And that's unfortunate."
Blincoe is knocking up between 75-80 miles this week in his attempt to make up for lost time.
Blincoe's coach is former Irish running great Marcus O'Sullivan, who is head coach at Villanova University in the United States. Blincoe was discovered and coached in his early years by the late John Davies, who raced in Peter Snell's shadow through the 1960s.
"It is a bummer. I raced in Wanganui a few weeks ago, and had a good race, so I was really looking forward to coming back to race against probably the best mile field we've had in 20 years," Blincoe said.
"I wanted to try myself out against them, but it's better I get this training in now. That will set me up a lot better for Melbourne."
Farah is rated as highly promising in the United Kingdom. Bideau agrees: "Mo is training very well. He could run a personal best." Bideau has taken Farah under his wing. "He ran 13.48 to finish fourth in a 5000m on January 6 a few days after he arrived in Australia," Bideau said.
"His actual coach is Alan Storey who coached Sonia O'Sullivan when she was at her very best. He is a very good friend of mine and a big influence on my training philosophy.
"Alan asked me if he could send him down to train with Craig and as Mo lives nearby us in London and regularly joins in with Craig's training when he was there, we were only too happy to have him involved with us."
A late entrant in the women's mile on Saturday is Australian 3000m steeplechase champion Melissa Rollinson, who has a 1500m best of 4.09.