Athletics-Farah not ending track career after missing Olympic qualifying mark-coach

(Reuters) - Britain's multiple world and Olympic long distance champion Mo Farah will not end his stellar track career after failing to make the Olympic qualifying time for the 10,000-metre race at the Tokyo Games, his coach Gary Lough said.

Farah, 38, who won gold in 5,000m and 10,000m at the 2012 and 2016 Games, needed to clock 27 minutes, 28 seconds to be available for selection but was nearly 20 seconds too slow at the British Athletics Championships on Friday.

Farah, who also has six world titles, faced questions about his future after the race but Lough said such talk was premature.

"There's no way Mo Farah is going to end his career running around the track here," Lough was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Farah had focussed on the marathon for more than three years but returned for another shot at the Olympics.

Lough said he was not sure what is next for Farah, who also fell short of the 10,000m qualifying mark at a meet in Birmingham this month.

"There wasn't really a Plan B - this was kind of a plan B after Birmingham, and there's definitely not a plan C right at this minute," Lough said.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)