Mo Farah capped another year of dominance by sprinting to victory at the Great North Run this morning, the Briton taking a narrow victory over Kenya’s Stanley Biwott in 59:22, his fastest time for the half marathon.

Biwott, who had tried for much of the race to break Farah, was never able to create substantial lead despite several surges in the closing miles. I the end, he was added to the growing list of those outkicked by Farah and finished one second behind in 59:24. Kenya’s Mike Kigen finished third in 1:00:10.

“I was knackered with two miles to go, getting lactic,” said Farah, “but I tried to test him down the hill. It was good it came down to the last few hundred metres. I thought it was going to be him I’d face at the end. My legs are shut down now, I want to spend time with my family and be there for the birth of my child. It was an amazing year; I’ll take two weeks completely off then get back into doing some training.

“The crowd gave me massive support, and if it wasn’t for them it would have been a different result.”

The women’s race was won in commanding style by Kenya’s Mary Keitany, who came home a distant winner in 1:07:32, over three minutes clear of Britain’s Gemma Steel, who ran 1:11:00 in second.

“It’s amazing to me because I’ve won it for a second time,” said Keitany. “My training has been going very well so I decided to go alone from the first mile.”