Farah eyes further records after he ends wait

Farah was involved in a lengthy heated exchange with Vernon on Tuesday night, during which he called his Great Britain team-mate ‘’an embarrassment’’.

“I’ve definitely learned a lot. I apologise to all the fans and the public out there,” the 31-year-old said.

He had been responding after Vernon, who earned his best career result to date when he was second to Farah in the European 10,000m last summer, criticised the lack of high-level competition to face Farah in Birmingham on Saturday.

In a radio interview yesterday morning, Farah added: “I shouldn’t have made the comments I did.

“To be honest with you, I reacted... my reaction got the best of me – 100 per cent.

“I apologise and we’ve just got to move on.”

Fired up by the public feud, which saw Somali-born Farah’s claim his team-mate questioned his nationality branded ‘’lies’’ by his rival, the double Olympic champion roared to a new world indoor best of 8:03.40 over two miles at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix.

Farah later denied that he had anything to prove as he roared to victory in the aftermath of the Vernon row.

Asked if he felt he had a point to prove, Farah said: “Not at all. I always knew I wanted to go for a world record.

“Training has been going pretty well.

“For me, I just wanted to go out there and see what I can do.”

It was the first time the double world champion has broken a world record, but he hopes it will not be his last.

“I can’t get excited just breaking one record,” he said. “I’ve got to continue doing what I’m doing.”

Farah was speaking inside the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, to launch the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, which will be held at the venue in July.

The inside of the venue looked like a building site as its transformation takes place to host Premier League football club West Ham United

But Farah revealed it was still special to return to the site of the London Olympics.

He said: “It looks different to when I raced at the Olympics in 2012, but we’re working on it.

“It brings back great memories just looking at the track now and thinking, ‘Where was the home straight? Where was the crowd?’, and getting that feeling back.

“It’s great to be able to know this is going to be our home ground for the next 50 years.

“I can bring my kids to a home where we can come over and watch the athletics every single year.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson warmed up for her tilt at pentathlon gold at the European Indoor Championships in Prague next month with a new British indoor record of 6.93m to win the long jump.

The achievement came a week after Jessica Ennis-Hill’s multi-eventing heir apparent broke the British high jump record with a clearance of 1.97m.

She said: “I am delighted. Things are going really well at the moment and it gives me confidence going ahead.

“It (the European Indoors) will be just like the World Championships because heptathlon’s so strong in Europe. But I feel ready for it now.”

Greg Rutherford began his 2015 season with a bang by setting four new indoor personal bests as he won the long jump with a world leading 8.17m.

The Olympic champion saved his best for his final jump to snatch victory with a leap which was just one centimetre off Chris Tomlinson’s national indoor record.

Rutherford said ahead of the competition that competing in Prague was not on his schedule, with his primary focus this year to win the world title for the first time.

He revealed he was likely to stick to that plan, even if he was now not quite so certain.

“I don’t know now. It’s a possibility but it’s a slim one,” said the 28-year-old on whether he might go to Prague.

“I think probably not still. I never planned to do it and never set it as a target.

“We’ve done one jump session and one run-up session in the build-up to this and the rest has been weight sessions, so we’ll see. If it was any other year then I’d consider it.

“But I’m so determined to win the World Championships this year and I do believe I can do that.”

Elsewhere, Wales’s Seren Bundy-Davies smashed her personal best to win the 400m in 51.72secs, taking almost half a second off her previous mark.

World No 1 Jenny Meadows underlined her status as favourite for 800m gold at the European Indoors with another win in 2:01.25.