Defending champion Mo Farah sets the pace

Mo Farah cruised into the 3000metres final at the European Indoor Championships today.

In-form Farah is favourite to retain his title in Paris, having broken the European indoor 5000m record in Birmingham two weeks ago.

The British runner was content to sit at the back of the pack in the early stages of the race before moving to the front with five and a half laps remaining. He then produced a well-timed burst of speed on the final lap to win the opening heat in 8min 02.36sec.

Although it was almost half a minute down on his best time this year, there was no need for Farah to push himself too hard given that the final is tomorrow.

All of Britain's athletes who competed this morning made it through to the next stage.

In the men's 400m, Richard Buck was the fastest of the 12 qualifiers for tonight's semi-finals, coming home in 46.57sec.

Also through were Richard Strachan, who ran 47.54sec and Nigel Levine, who was 0.19sec slower.

Tiffany Ofili was second in her heat for the women's 60m hurdles in 8.05sec and qualified third fastest for this afternoon's semi-final.