Great Britain middle-distance star Mo Farah defended his 10,000-meter Olympic gold medal on Saturday night from Rio, pulling away on the final lap to win gold in convincing fashion.
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But he brilliantly recovered to accumulate a second 10,000m title to add to the 5,000m gold he also won in London four years ago.
DOWN TO THE WIRE: Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium beat defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Britain to win an Olympic heptathlon competition that went down to fractions of a second in the last event.
“Is the race over?”
Being a high school track athlete myself Mo Farah’s definitely reminds of my day’s in track.
“I thought “get through, get through”.
Rupp dropped back to check on his friend. And how. Kenyan Paul Kipngetich Tanui pushed him so close, finishing a fraction of a second behind the winning time of 27 minutes 5.17 seconds.
The chances of Mo Farah making it to the top seemed slim at best when he fell down with 16 laps to go. “We are just following his footsteps”.
Farah’s gold is his third in the Olympic Games.
Thompson’s fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, victor of the previous two Olympic gold medals in the event, had to settle for bronze in 10.86. That move contributed to Farah winning his first world title, claiming gold in the 5,000 meters over distance superstar Bernard Lagat in Daegu, South Korea.
While Rutherford was just two centimetres off his golden 2012 performance, this time 8.29m bagged him the bronze as a rollercoaster competition saw him beaten by Jeff Henderson of United States of America and South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga.
“That’s why I was so emotional at the end, it nearly went”.
Jeff Henderson of the USA overtook Luvo Manyonga of South Africa on his last jump to win the Olympic long jump gold medal Saturday.
“It feels awesome to make history and to be along with Kenenisa and Haile”, he said.
And Farah is game for this.
The London 2012, Moscow 2013 and Beijing 2015, double distance champion, such is his staggering record, however, was not to be denied as he went to the outside of his latest challenger to his throne and hit the homestretch with all what he had.
Farah also had a kind word for Rupp, who was guilty of clipping his British training partner. The rest of the field had to dodge him, as he shot up quickly and rejoined the back of the pack.
“I’ve won an Olympic gold for three of my children”, he said.
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“I got emotional because you put so much work in and in one moment it’s gone”, Farah said of his fall. The Brit calmly let several runners ahead of him, but was surrounded by the Kenyan trio with 17 laps to go; after the quickest lap of the race so far.
