* 1 pt each way Mo Farah 80/1 Paddy Power, 66/1 general 1/4 1,2,3

Mo seems to have been part of my SPOTY portfolio for years. It hasn’t always been pretty with him narrowly missing the podium on two occasions.

Athletics appears in some turmoil with drugs allegations rife and Mo is very much caught up in it all. The effect on how popular athletes will be at SPOTY remains to be seen but the doubts over credibility must be damaging.

That said, everyone has their price. In the last three years of Worlds, Olympics, Worlds, Mo has finished 4, 4, 3 in SPOTY (while also trading low in running and on all occasions expected to make the podium). So the 20/1 available to finish in the top 3 seems too big to ignore. It provides plenty of scope to lay Mo for his individual events of 5,000m and 10,000m at the Worlds later this month (should be a fairly short price for both if he gets there fit and well) as well as laying off for the SPOTY podium for profit should he win one or preferably both (in which case he’d hopefully go odds on for top 3).