World Half-Marathon Champs: Cardiff hopeful on Mo Farah entry

Mo Farah finished eighth at the London Marathon in 2014

Organisers of the 2016 World Half-Marathon Championships in Cardiff are in talks with Mo Farah to participate.

The double Olympic champion defended his World Championships 5,000m and 10,000m titles in Beijing in August.

His involvement next March in Wales would be a major coup for the event, which will be held over the same course as this Sunday's Cardiff Half-Marathon.

"We've got a really good dialogue with Mo Farah," said Matt Newman, the chief executive of organisers Run 4 Wales.

"I was speaking with his agent only yesterday in fact.

"We were talking about Mo's programme for 2016 which they're really just putting together."

It has been a difficult summer for Farah, with a series of allegations made against his coach Alberto Salazar - all denied by the American, and with no suggestion Farah has done anything wrong.

But the 32-year-old Briton remains one of the biggest - and most popular - stars of distance running and underlined his talent last month by defending the two World titles he won in 2013 in Moscow.

Farah remains favourite to also successfully defend his Olympic titles at the 2016 Games in Brazil next August.

"Of course, what Mo Farah has come out and said is it's all about the Olympics in Rio in the summer, but there are some options for him in March," Newman added.

"Just before the World Half-Marathon Championships in Cardiff is the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Oregon.

"Obviously he lives in that part of the world so that will also be something of interest to him.

"But at the moment we've got a really healthy dialogue with Mo Farah so we'll be doing our best to persuade him that Cardiff's a better option than Portland in Oregon."