MO FARAH will return to the North-East to defend his crown in next month’s Morrisons Great North Run.

Farah, who will also defend his 5,000m and 10,000m titles at this month’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing despite the recent controversy surrounding his American coach, Alberto Salazar, claimed his first Great North Run victory 12 months ago after a thrilling battle with Kenyan Mike Kigen.

He will defend his title on the streets of Tyneside on Sunday, September 13, and has also agreed to jog around the course as part of the Morrisons Great North 5k 24 hours earlier as well as performing the starter duties for the Mini Great North Run.

The double Olympic champion from London 2012 will attempt to become only the second British runner to win the elite men’s race for a second time.

North-Easterner Mike McLeod, who won a 10,000m silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, won the first two editions of the Great North Run in 1981 and 82. Since then, the late Benson Masya is the only other runner to successfully defend the men’s title.

The elite men’s field for this year’s race is already packed with world-class names, with last year’s London Marathon runner up, Stanley Biwott of Kenya, confirmed to line up against Farah.

Other confirmed entrants include South African Stephen Mokoka, the winner of last year’s Great Scottish Run, Juan Luis Barrios of Mexico, who is a former Pan American Games 5,000m champion, and Japan’s Masato Kikuchi, who finished 18th in last year’s World Half Marathon Championship.

Further British interest will be provided by Scot Callum Hawkins, who was fifth in the Under-23 race at last December’s European Cross-Country Championships in Bulgaria.