Meet the retail assistant who paid £37 to beat four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah

Ellis Cross (centre) out-sprinted Mo Farah (left) at the Vitality London 10,000 race, having paid his own entry fee and ran with no name on his bib. Photo / Getty

Few could have predicted club runner Ellis Cross's shock victory over four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah on Monday. Nobody except Cross himself maybe.

Last Friday, when working his day job at a running shop in sleepy Surbiton, south London, he surprised his colleague with a bold prediction. "Just casually Ellis said, 'I've got the race on Monday, I think I might win it,'" Millie Grice, a fellow retail assistant at Up & Running, told Telegraph Sport.

She did not give it much thought at the time, especially considering earlier that morning Cross had forgotten whether he had even booked the Bank Holiday off work for the Vitality London 10,000m.

But, sitting in the shop on Monday watching the footage of Cross out-kicking Farah down The Mall, Grice was incredulous: "He told me he was going to win!"

For all his confidence at work, when Cross's alarm went off at 6am and he dragged himself to the train station to join the thousands of fun runners making their way into central London, he could not in his wildest dreams have imagined just how the race was about to play out. He not only achieved the biggest win of his life but also inflicted such an unlikely defeat on Farah that it looks to have hammered the nail in the coffin of his elite running career.

Ordinarily, Cross, 25, would have been working. He did so on Sunday, the day before the race, spending the six-hour shift fitting customers with new running trainers on the bulky treadmill at the shop. Instead on Monday he made a mockery of the organisers' decision not to award him a place in the elite field for this race. That he had to pay his own £37 entry fee to take part will forever serve as a reminder of just how unexpected the result was.

"I've just beaten arguably the greatest of all time on the streets of London," he said. "It is unbelievable. I don't even have my name on my bib. When I was running round everyone was calling Mo's name because they know who he is. No one knows who I am. I'm just a club runner.

"I was thinking if I could get anywhere near the top five it would be an unbelievable run. I just wanted a hard run out. I wasn't looking at times and didn't wear my watch. I haven't followed the script have I?"

Ellis, who has represented Great Britain at U23 level, smashed his personal best in London. Photo / Getty

Although Ellis had previously earned a British Under-23 cross-country vest having earlier won the English national cross-country title, this victory was by some margin the biggest of his career. Farah had been expected to triumph with some ease over a domestic field, but had Ellis for company at the head of the race and the two were locked together entering The Mall. At that point, Ellis made light of the sprint finish that Farah so often used to win global titles, surging his way to a four-second victory in 28 minutes 40 seconds and earning £2,000 prize money.

"I didn't believe it until 20 metres from the line when I thought: 'I think I might be able to win this race' and just gave it absolutely everything I had," said Ellis. "I tried to make it quite hard from 2km out because he's renowned for his finish. He has been all across his career and is difficult to beat in the final stages of a race.

"When we came around the corner I thought if I took the inside line he'd have to come around me and run further, and I managed to hold on. I'm absolutely delighted."

Unluckily for Up & Running, their newly famous sales assistant was not wearing shoes bought from their store as he raced to victory. However, his commitment to the day job remains and on Tuesday afternoon he will be back at work, leading the shop's social run in what will be a very unconventional recovery day. "It's a free weekly run which we have about 20 local people come join in on," Grice, who has worked with Cross for six months, said. "We usually start from the shop and he takes the faster group. Now, all the people who come will be like 'I ran with Ellis last week and now he won a huge race.'"

Cross said he would save his winnings and put it towards buying a house, while he also hopes the victory means he will be able to gain elite entry into races from now on. "It would be nice wouldn't it!" he said. "Free entry goes a long way for someone like myself."