Track star Mo Farah, 31, ended his trying 2014 road racing season on a winning note Sun., Sept. 7 as he won the Bupa Great North Run over the half-marathon distance in a close finish with his friend and sometime training partner Mike Kigen of Kenya.

Running the course from Newcastle Upon Thyne to South Shields in the northeast of England, the two were given the same time – 1:00:00! – although at the least Farah seemingly should have clocked a tenth or two tenths of a second faster than Kigen.

Stephen Kiprotich, 24, of Kenya finished third in 1:01:35.

Farah, the defending Olympic and World Championships 5000- and 10,000-meter champion, had suffered a bad fall during the New York City Half-Marathon earlier this year and was carted off in a wheelchair after the race. Then Britain’s favorite distance runner – maybe ever! – was royally shellacked in the London Marathon when he finished only eighth in his first attempt at the distance. So Sunday’s race served as sweet redemption for him and he became the first British runner to win this race since Steve Kenyon won it in 1985.

In Sunday’s race Farah’s main challengers were expected to be Kenya’s Stephen Kiprotich, the Olympic and World marathon champion, and Ethiopia’s Tariku Bekele, the Olympic 10,000-meter bronze medalist.

However, a blistering early pace over the first four miles dropped these two, leaving just three men – Farah, Kigen and Uganda’s Thomas Ayegu – at the front.

Ayegu fell back at halfway, leaving Farah and Kigen to fight it out the rest of the way – and as Kigen kept up the pressure from seven to 10 miles, with Farah in evident discomfort, it seemed the Kenyan would prevail. Indeed, on several occasions Kigen opened a gap of 10 to 20 meters, only to have Farah drag himself back on even terms each time.

A mile from the finish, the two runners, who are both represented by Pace Management, were observed chatting with each other before Farah pulled away. This led some to speculate that the Kenyan had deliberately let Farah go, but Kigen vigorously denied that.

 “I was slowing because I was feeling tired,” he said later. “That’s why Mo won the race.” By the slimmest of margins, one might add, after Kigen came back at him right at the finish.

Farah explained that the two of them had been talking about speeding up over the final mile if they wanted to break the one-hour mark.

“He (Kigen) was saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ But I wanted to have something left in the end. The aim was to win the race rather than run a fast time.”

Farah also admitted he had to dig deep to stay with Kigen earlier in the race.

“Mike’s a great athlete and he just kept pushing and pushing, so I was just thinking, ‘Just hang in, just hang in” so I could create more speed.