Seb Coe and Steve Cram were recently discussing 
the state of British middle distance running, specifically Cram's 1500m mark and 
Coe's 800m one.

The pair agreed that they could see no Briton likely to threaten either.

The Three Musketeers, including Steve Ovett, all at one time or another held the world 1500 metres record, yet they have become as ancient history as Alexandre Dumas since Mo Farah obliterated the European and British records in Monaco last Friday.

Cram's world record of 3min 29.67sec survived as the world best for less than a month back in 1985 but endured for 28 years as the British mark, until Farah clocked 3:28.81.

The world record has stood to Hicham el Guerrouj (3:26.00) since 1998. Farah has not only redefined UK middle distance running, relegating the British trio from headline to footnote, but poses interesting questions.

Like how fast might Farah run 
if he trained for the event? Coe set 
a world 800m best of 1.41.73 in 1981, and ran 3:31.95 for 1500m within a month. So what about Farah at 800m, given that his 1500m best is significantly faster than Coe's was then? Farah's 800m best is 1:48.69, 
10 years ago.

Cram admitted to shock that a long-distance runner who was only dabbling at the metric mile should have overhauled himself, Coe and Ovett on the UK all-time list. 
"I'm just stunned," he said.

Given what Farah has done, 
we are left to wonder if our three musketeers were firing blanks. 
It might even prompt us to ponder whether they were really as good as we once thought they were?

Farah is already contracted to contest the Virgin London Marathon next April. Everything points to a dramatic debut, with hints that he could put the world best under threat, even though his fastest for the half-distance leaves him well outside the all-time top 50.

Despite Mo's prodigy, it's important to keep challenges in perspective. Yet Farah would not be human if he didn't give some thought to what he might achieve at 1500m and the mile. Especially since that was the distance at which he began his career as an under-13, before claiming the English Schools under-17 title (3:55.78) in 1999.

Farah is due to run the 3000m in London at the Anniversary Games this weekend. It would have been far more revealing had he lined up in the Emsley Carr Mile. It has been won by a Brit only once since 1994.

His run in Monaco last weekend was the sixth fastest ever for 1500m - much higher than he is ranked at either 5000 or 10,000m, the distances at which he is Olympic champion. Mo is a modest 31st (12:53.11) at 5000m and fifteenth (26:46.57) at 10,000m.

Reaction to his Monaco 1500m has been indecent, particularly in the US, with websites full of scepticism and inuendo and even outright allegations that Farah is cheating, and that Cram was doing likewise 
in 1985.

Given the current culture of sport, it's perhaps inevitable. It would be gratifying to see these anonymous individuals, who hide behind pseudonyms, being pursued in the courts, along with the sites who are trading for profit on the back of libellous content.

There is no question, however, that Farah's latest 1500m performance was the equivalent 
of conducting a public nuclear test. His opponents at the World Championships will now be wondering how they can defuse the latest weapon in his arsenal.

Well, they can try to drag him out of his comfort zone in Moscow next month by racing inside his personal best - in other words run at world-record pace. In a championship, however, that is Russian roulette. That's why such races tend to be tactical, a style for which Farah's pace equips him admirably. Given Moscow's likely high humidity, world-record pace would be even more suicidal.

Hence the last 5000m world record to be set at a championships was 
by Vladimir Kuts (European Championships, Berne, 1954). 
The last 10,000m world best in a championships was by Lasse Viren (Munich Olympics, 1972).

In the pantheon of endurance greats, Farah is nudging higher by the day. Olympic gold at 5 and 10k, world gold and silver. But no 
world records as yet, even if recent performances suggest they may be coming within reach.

Still, he remains well in the wake of the peerless Haile Gebrselassie. The Ethiopian's marks may have been surpassed by compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, but his range and catalogue of records is beyond challenge. Geb set 27 world records indoors and out, ranging from 2000m indoors to the marathon.

Though he never achieved Farah's 5/10k Olympic double (matched by Bekele in 2008), Gebrselassie won 
13 global titles (two Olympic) and recorded a notable World Indoor 1500m crown at Maebashi in 1999.

Farah has yet to test his range
at the marathon, but one accolade 
he already holds over the 
Little Emperor is his current sixth place on the world 1500m rankings this year. Gebrselassie's best at 1500m was tenth, in 1998, when he clocked 3:31.76, indoors.

We look forward to Farah re-writing British athletics history for some years to come.

Magnificent Mo Farah is making us reconsider those we thought were great...