Double Olympic, world and European champion races outdoors for the first time this year in Portugal on Sunday

Mo Farah makes his 2015 outdoor debut on Sunday as he returns to road race action at the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon.

The double Olympic, world and European champion broke a world best on his last competitive outing, clocking 8:03.40 to better the two mile indoor mark at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham last month.

Further record breaking could be on the cards for Sunday, with Farah’s personal best of 60:00 from his Bupa Great North Run win last year on an overall downhill course the quickest time ever run by a British athlete. His British best for a loop course is 60:59.

The Lisbon Half Marathon is the event where the world record of 58:23 was set by Zersenay Tadese in 2010 and when confirming Farah’s participation last month, race organiser Carlos Moia expressed his hopes that the field will attack Tadese’s mark. There is a USD$100,000 bonus if that world record is broken.

Also among those set to race are Kenya’s Stephen Kibet, who ran his half marathon PB of 58:54 in 2012, and other fellow sub-60:00 men Silas Kipruto of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Guye Adola.

Kenya’s Olympic marathon silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo heads the women’s field with her half marathon best of 66:11 from 2013. Portuguese record-holder Ana Dulce F lix is also among the entries.

This will be Farah’s sixth half marathon, the 31-year-old having finished in the top two in each of his other races over the distance, winning on his debut at the New York City Half in 2011 and going on to also secure victories at the New Orleans Rock n Roll Half in 2013 and the Bupa Great North Run in 2014.

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