Britain’s Mo Farah celebrates after winning the gold medal during the men’s 10,000-metre final at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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Farah outstripped Kenya’s Paul Tanui on the home straight to claim his third Olympic title and remain on course to repeat the double success he achieved on home soil in London four years ago.
Farah returns to the track on Wednesday as he begins the defence of the 5,000m title he also won at London 2012.
He is unbeaten in major races since Ibrahim Jeilan pipped him in the longer distance at the 2011 World Championship.
To the latter’s credit, Tanui didn’t make Farah’s move an open-and-shut case, but nevertheless, Farah has won again and keeps the hopes of a double gold in the 5000m alive.
Henderson’s long-jump gold was USA’s 22nd in the event, the most by a country in a single event. The American from Portland gets another chance to win a medal in the Olympic marathon next Sunday.
Ethiopia’s Yigrem Demelash made a couple of daring efforts to push the pace from the front as the group East Africans were running out of track to attack Farah, who has easily the best finish in distance running.
“I’ve won an Olympic gold for three of my children”, he said.
‘I knew (silver medallist Paul) Tanui well but I didn’t know the Ethiopian guys so was thinking, ‘What can they do?’, and try and make sure I had something after the end. “I’ve got a target on my back”, said Farah, who was born in war-torm Somalia before moving to neighbouring Djibouti and then Britain at the age of eight.
Mo Farah stormed to another gold medal win at the Rio 2016 Olympics at the weekend but it was “pure agony” for his wife watching from the sidelines.
“I came in here knowing it would be hard to do both, but I wanted to give it a shot”, he said.
“I promised my daughter that I was going to get a medal and I wasn’t going to let her down”, said Farah, who celebrated his win with emotional family members.
American Jeff Henderson took gold with a final-round effort of 8.38m, denying South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga by a centimetre, and the Briton was down in fourth until producing his best attempt with his last jump.
Ennis-Hill could only take silver in the heptathlon as she lost by a narrow margin to Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam.
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Earlier on Saturday, Christoph Harting of Germany succeeded brother Robert as the men’s Olympic discus champion, while Usain Bolt was slower than arch rival Justin Gatlin in the first round of the men’s 100m.
