Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah's hopes of ending his track career at the Tokyo Games suffered a huge blow as he fell short of the qualifying mark for the 10,000 metres in Birmingham on Saturday. The 38-year-old finished eighth, behind fellow Briton Marc Scott, in the European Cup, which doubled as British Olympic trial. Farah's time in his first race at this distance for four years was 22 seconds short of the required standard of 27 mins 28 secs to qualify for the Games which are due to start on July 23. He has another three weeks to make the qualifying time and could also turn his attention to the 5,000 metres in which he won gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016. A mixed sequence of results since moving from the track to the marathon persuaded Farah to give it one last blast on the surface he enjoyed his greatest moments on. However, he may now miss out on that final hurrah even if the Games go ahead despite concerns over coronavirus infection rates in the Japan. kca/td