Page 58 - Great Elizabethans

Although Mo Farah left Somalia for Britain when he was only a child, and at first found it hard to adapt to his new home, he worked and trained and ran his way to victory, becoming one of the best long-distance runners in the world.
THE TWINS
In 1983, identical twin boys were born to Aisha and Mukhtar Farah in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. One brother was called Hassan, the other was called Mohamed – but this soon got shortened to Mo! The twins and their four younger brothers and sisters grew up in the countryside in Somaliland until a war started, and violence tore their home apart. Then Mo and Hassan were sent across the border to the
small country of Djibouti, to stay with their grandparents.
Because he was dyslexic, Mo struggled at school, and Hassan had
to help him with his reading. He really wanted to be a mechanic, but his family didn’t approve of this idea. He was already starting to be good at
running, though. When electricity power cuts meant Mo’s favourite television show cut out, he’d run to the next street over, then the next, then the next, until he
found a street with power – early training for his later victories!
The war in Somalia continued, and, when Mo was eight, he and his two younger brothers
were sent overseas to Britain to live with their father, who had been born there. But Hassan was too ill to travel. Mo wouldn’t see his beloved twin brother again for 12 whole years.
When he was five or six, Mo was badly burned on his arm in an accident at home. He had a lucky escape, though – if the burn had been a little higher, the nerves in his arm would have been damaged and he might never have been able to run at all.
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