Steve Cram on Mo Farah's move to the United States

While the eyes of the world are turning to London, with just over a year to go to the London 2012 Olympics, Mo Farah has moved almost 5,000 miles away, and has enjoyed instant success.

Farah set a new European 10,000m record of 26 minutes 46.57 seconds last weekend in Oregon in the United States, a couple of hours from his new home in Portland.

He has lived in west London since the age of eight, when his family arrived from Somalia as refugees, but he decided to move much further west, partly to spend more time with his new coach, three-time New York Marathon winner Alberto Salazar.

Alberto likes to pay attention to detail and Mo has responded to it well. The question of "Will it work, won't it work?" was never an issue ahead of his move.

The decision was being considered from last summer so when Mo made the choice it wasn't difficult for him, it was a continuation of where he had been heading for a couple of years.

He has got a really good set-up in Portland with everything he needs. He goes altitude training in Utah, which isn't too far away from his base. In Portland he uses the Nike Oregon Project with other elite athletes so it's a really good environment.

Whether it's strength or conditioning, a massage or the gym - it's all just there. It's a runner's dream, I would have loved to have something like that in my day.

There's a good community in Oregon, which has a strong tradition in distance running. Everyone socialises together so it's an easy set up to fit into.

I've known Mo for a long time and he's a very easy-going character who is very adaptable; Alberto has always said he is very coachable.

Things don't stress Mo out. His wife Tania is also incredibly supportive. They got married last year and it's been a great 12 months for them. He's very happy with his family and they're very happy to be with him so that takes away that worry.

He talks a lot about the sacrifices you have to make as an athlete and usually the people around you want you to be just as successful so are willing to make sacrifices as well.

The couple have been renting a property in Oregon for a while and their daughter Rihanna is already in school so they were trying to look for a house to buy in the right area.

Like anyone else, Mo wants to make sure his family is settled and comfortable as he will be training a lot of the time and going away for altitude training.

I had a tour around their new place recently which was very exciting; they're really pleased with it. The estate agent that showed us around was a big track fan so he loved Mo.

That record-breaking has given Mo and Alberto more options to consider ahead of the World Championships in Daegu at the end of August.

Mo's initial plan was to run the 5,000m in Korea but, in the last four or five weeks, his training has been going so well that him and his coach decided he should run the 10,000m at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene.

We saw what he can do in the latter stages of a race - on Friday he ran a 55-second last lap. It's always been said that Ethiopian world record-holder Kenenisa Bekele - who has won 10,000m gold at the last two Olympic Games - is the only person who can do that. Well now Mo Farah can too.

As Mo has been running so well in the last couple of months, I think Alberto will want to peg back his training and then build up again through to the championships so Mo does not peak too early.

When you're in great shape you're only one run away from an injury so I imagine Mo will take it easy for two or three weeks before stepping it up again to prepare for Daegu.

Mo has a good chance at getting an Olympic medal next year so the media are going to want to talk to him and spend time with him. He's in a good place in Portland because the demand for his time will be less.

As he's in the States he can just get on with this training and keep away from the attention.

Steve Cram was talking to BBC Sport's Jessica Creighton.