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Mo Farah wins 10000m despite mid-race fall

The 33-year-old added that to be mentioned in the same breath as Ethiopian greats Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, who have four 10,000m Olympic gold medals between them, was an honour.

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On the 10th lap, Farah tripped over US runner Galen Rupp, his training partner.

“For me it’s one of these where you draw on all the experiences that you’ve had”.

Talking about his fall he added: “I wasn’t going to let it go”.

“That’s why I was so emotional at the end, it nearly went”.

In the post-race press conference questions varied from tactics to world records.

The women’s 10,000m final was contested Friday.

“Big names went out of the competition yet again and I was very almost one of them”, the Briton said, adding: “I’ll be very different tomorrow. I guess my life is going to change, I am still at university so maybe I have a decision to make”. But the Brit, who’s renowned for his strong finishes, sprinted clear in the final 100m to claim his third Olympic gold medal.

Finland’s Lasse Viren is the only other athlete to accomplish the “double double”, winning and defending the gold medals in the 10,000 and 5,000 at Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray will go for Olympic gold again after beating Kei Nishikori in the tennis semi-final.

Kenya’s Paul Kipngetich Tanui won silver with a season-best 27:05.64, while Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola won bronze in 27:06.26. So remember this no matter how hard life gets, finish the race, because you never know what medal God might give you. American Tori Bowie lunged at the line for 10.83 and beat Fraser-Pryce by 0.03 seconds. Farah quickly got back up to his feet and flashed a thumbs up.

Trott is now the first British female athlete to win three gold medals at the Olympics.

“As each lap went down I was getting more confidence, confidence, confidence”, he said. I managed to dig deep, told myself “don’t panic”.

It was Britain’s sixth medal in the Olympic swimming pool this week while Phelps picked up the 28th of his illustrious career. “You know what goes in, you can’t imagine how much work you put in, in one moment it’s gone”. It came with a bit more adversity than his first three as he fell to thr track at around the 4000m mark of the race when he was clipped from behind by his training partner Galen Rupp.

Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew T Hodge, Matt Gotrel, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge, William Satch and cox Phelan Hill followed up the women’s silver by topping the podium in the final race at the Lagoa.

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The Briton’s personal best was 9.47 seconds better than Thiam’s but the new mother likes to measure her performances these days in terms of PBPBs – post-baby personal bests – and it always looked too big a gap.

Great Britain's Joanna Rowsell Shand Elinor Barker Laura Trott and Katie Archibald celebrate winning gold