When music publicist Carl Delahunty started getting calls from Somalia and texts of congratulation on his new mobile phone, it took a while for the penny to drop

by Michael Hann

In Mo Farah’s autobiography there is a brief passage, around three-quarters of the way through the book, when he talks about changing his mobile phone. “Later,” the double Olympic gold medallist writes, “I’ll find out that some random guy ended up with my old phone number. Every time I do well in a race or I’m in the spotlight, this poor guy’s phone explodes with phone calls and text messages.”

“‘Some random guy’ – that made me laugh,” says Carl Delahunty, the random guy in question. Delahunty, a 40-year-old music publicist from London, became Farah’s proxy in 2009 when he signed up for a new mobile phone – mainly because he wanted the free games console being offered with the contract –and got the number that was to be the bane of his life.

“I hadn’t even had it a week when I started receiving calls from a rogue number,” he says. “I answered and this beefy voice asked: ‘Hello? Hello? Is that Mo?’ It continued for months, at all sorts of ungodly hours.” He checked the dialling code, saw it was from Somalia, but thought little of it until 2010, when suddenly he was besieged with messages of congratulations from around the world.

Still he didn’t realise what was happening. It was only when a colleague pointed out that there was a Somali-born athlete called Mo Farah who had just won two gold medals at the World Athletics Championships that the penny dropped. For his colleague, at least. “Even then,” Delahunty says, “I was thinking that couldn’t be the case – until I was out at lunch and got a text from a lady at Sky telling me I was the man, and anytime I wanted to come in for an interview I was welcome. I replied: ‘Indeed, I am the man. However, I’m not doing any interviews apart from The One Show and Newsround.’ I know it was cheeky, but after two years of random phone calls it was fair enough.”

Nevertheless, there’s one question that needs asking. Why didn’t he just change his number? “I’m lazy,” he replies. And does he have a message for Britain’s greatest living Olympian? “Yeah. If he ever needs someone to take his calls, I’m definitely qualified.”

Source: The Guardian