Paula Radcliffe reveals what she and husband Gary Lough said after Mo Farah won BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Farah's shock victory triggered a surprise response from his coach and his former British teammate

Former London Marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe has stressed that neither she nor her husband disagreed with Mo Farah’s surprise victory in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, despite claims on social media about their reaction.

Both Radcliffe and her husband, Gary Lough, were shown on television screens immediately after Farah was named winner of the award, despite being a 40/1 outsider for the gong before the ceremony got underway.

Having seen Paralympic sprinter Johnnie Peacock and World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea named third and second respectively, Farah beat the likes of Anthony Joshua and Lewis Hamilton to first place in the public vote, which triggered a surprise response from the four-time Olympic gold medallist.

It also elicited a surprise reaction from Radcliffe and Lough, which led to social media users accusing Lough of saying the result was a “f****** joke” while shaking his head.

But Radcliffe has cleared up the controversy and revealed that they were simply surprised that Farah had won the award, and were “not at all” against the result, given that Lough has recently taken on the role of Farah’s coach after replacing controversial American trainer Alberto Salazar.

“Not at all,” Radcliffe wrote on Twitter when asked if she and Lough disagreed with the result. “Totally the opposite, just surprised and bit shocked by it.”

Farah was not at the ceremony in Liverpool after deciding to stay with his family in London due to his children suffering from illness. The 34-year-old revealed that his two-year-old son, Hussein, and twin daughters, Aisha and Amani, had all been sick in the lead up to the awards ceremony after moving back to London from the United States, and stressed that he would have been in attendance had the opportunity arose.

“Over the years, I’ve come third, fourth, or thereabouts, and I was like ‘this thing, is hard to win’, but I guess you just got to do what you’ve got to do and over the past 10 years I’ve been very lucky with the career I’ve had and the support I’ve had,” Farah said via video link.

“The people who voted at home for me and have supported me on the track – without their support it’s a long road and I wouldn’t have done it without them, they keep me grafting.

Mo Farah won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award for the first time (PA)

Farah appeared via video link with his daughter Rihanna and son Hussein (PA)

Paula Radcliffe and husband Gary Lough arrive at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards (PA)

“It’s been an incredible night. I do wish I was there. It would have been nice to give back to the people. The most important thing in my life is my family.

“My son’s ill, the twins have been sick. It’s been a pretty hard transition moving back from the US to here. They’ve been struggling a bit.

“You saw my son and, in fact, he was throwing up everywhere in the other room.”