Mo Farah masterful as he wins incredible 10,000 metres despite early fall and becomes first British track athlete to win three gold medals
Not even a mid-race fall could stop Mo Farah winning the Olympic 10,000m gold again. Farah was on the floor in the race and on the ground again at the end, when the enormity of his achievement sent him tumbling to the track for a few moments of contemplation.
Farah is not just a British idol. The noise that greeted his victoryshowed him to be an athlete of world renown. Tripping over his own training partner, Galen Rupp, around the 4km mark added to the drama but took nothing from his determination to prevail here in Rio. Farah was smiling as he retuned to his feet. A thumbs-up said this was only a minor distraction.
With two laps to go, Farah struck the front from Paul Tanui and Rupp and something of the London 2012 roar sent him spinning for home on the final bell. But Kenya’s Tanui was not standing aside to let Farah past. He attacked on the far side, trying to break the defending champion, but stretched himself too far, and soon Farah was steaming past to claim his second consecutive Olympic 10,000m title.
An array of prizes was laid out for Farah, 33, on this blue Rio track.Retaining the 10,000m alone was a daunting task. The list of long-distance runners who have defended that title is short but illustrious: Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Paavo Nurmi, way back in 1920 and 1928.
Only Finland’s Viren has scored consecutive Olympic golds in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, winning the two events at the 1972 and 1976 Games. The five-thousand now presents an even greater challenge to the dominant distance runner of his era.
Never have we seen him so fired up. Before the start Farah ran up the home straight pumping the crowd. But when the 34-strong field set off he cruised round in last position before moving up to join the race properly with 19 laps remaining.
Of the big British three in action on this Saturday night/Sunday morning back home, Farah was always the strongest fancy to repeat his feat in London: the city he moved to from Somalia aged eight. Greg Rutherford (long jump) and Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon) faced stiffer tasks, on the face of it, than the man who has broken the Kenyan and Ethiopian grip on his event.
Britain entered this oceanic blue arena in buoyant spirits, with nine gold medals: three from rowing, three from track cycling and one each from canoeing, diving and swimming. That placed them third in the overall table, behind only the United States and China. Earlier in the day, Bill Sweeney, the British Olympic Association chief executive, declared that Britain was on course to reach its pre-Games target of 48 medals.
By: XSportsLive
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