Britain’s Mo Farah completed a historic Olympic distance double-double with victory in the 5,000m in rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
Farah became the first man since Finnish great Lasse Viren in 1976 to retain two Olympic distance titles after storming to victory, a week after defending his 10,000m crown at Rio’s Olympic Stadium.
The 33-year-old Somalia-born Londoner again produced a superb tactical race on Saturday to outfox his rivals and take gold in 13 minutes, 3.30 seconds.
Photo: AFP
“Oh my God, I can’t believe it!” Farah said after the race. “My legs were tired after the 10,000m and people had to bring me food in my room.”
“This is the most satisfying win of the four, it is incredible,” he said. “If you have dreams, they can come true and I always wanted to achieve these for my kids because for so much of the year you don’t see them. You want to show them something or rather the reason for the absences.”
Farah came into the final stretch in the lead, and that meant it was over. He crossed the line with his arms open wide and his eyes closed in ecstasy.
Paul Chelimo of the US took silver and Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia got bronze.
On the medal stand, Farah put his fingers on top of his head for the heart-shaped “Mobot” move, as well-known to long-distance running fans as Usain Bolt’s “To the World” pose is to everyone else.
“This medal is for my son,” said Farah, who has four children and four gold medals.
After another standout Olympics, Farah is ranking ever higher among the best runners in history. Kenenisa Bekele, with three Olympic and five world titles? Swept by him. Farah now has four Olympic gold medals and five world championship titles.
In the shrouds of history, there is still Emil Zatopek of the Czech Republic and Paavo Nurmi of Finland, but the changes in competition make an accurate comparison impossible. Nurmi has nine Olympic gold medals from the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, while Zatopek won the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
It is easier to call Farah long distance running’s answer to Bolt, the man who came over to embrace Farah in the warmup zone ahead of the race.
It is not as if he needed the help, but he still won while several of the runners behind him caused a bit of confusion.
Three competitors, including second-place finisher Chelimo, were initially disqualified. That meant US teammate Bernard Lagat would get bronze. However, the decision was rescinded a short time later and Chelimo was reinstated to silver, while Lagat was pushed back to fifth.
None of that affected Farah.
Starting at the back, the experienced runner slowly made his way up and found himself in an ideal position with two laps to go, hugging the inside of the track and with only open space ahead of him. When Gebrhiwet tried to cut him off, he smartly used his wiry frame to deny him and cement his position among the all-time greats.
“I controlled it and I wasn’t going to let anyone pass me and then in the end I just used my speed,” Farah said.
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