Farah is 32 but could run on for a while yet, with the Rio Olympics his main target next summer and the World Championships in 2017 being held at the scene of his greatest triumph, the London Olympic Stadium.
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Before Saturday no man – not even Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele – had won the long-distance double at more than one World Championships. “It’s never easy to continue double/double”. Farah was forced to dig deep on the back straight but eventually began to claw back the deficit on the last corner. “From that point on I was really trying to relax and see what I could do towards the last lap”. However, it was too quick and Farah blitzed past with around 80 metres remaining, completing a 54.24-second lap.
Earlier in the day Matej Toth of Slovakia won the men’s 50Km race walk in 3 hours 40.32 seconds.
Farah, who described Foster’s comments as “amazing”, named rower Sir Steve Redgrave, ex-footballer David Beckham and former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson as his three greatest British sportsmen. “He’s a class athlete, and he’s still young”.
The Briton started the summers’ medal collection off in impressive style by defending his 10,000m title which inevitably put a summer of speculation behind him. He really did test me.
Ndiku clocked 13:51.75 to get the silver, and was not disappointed.
“I would say Mo is the greatest sportsman Britain has ever had”. Two have come in the 10,000 metres, the first in Moscow two years ago and the second during these championships in Beijing.
Farah parked himself at the back of the pack as American pair Ben True and Galen Rupp, Farah’s training partner under coach Salazar in Oregon, followed Farrell. I think he’ll beat them all again.
He was almost tripped, Farah saying: “I nearly went down, but I managed to stay on my feet and win the race”.
Ennis-Hill secured her first major championship success since her 2012 gold at the London Olympics in truly heroic style.
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“It’s bittersweet – national record but fourth place, we were definitely coming for a medal”, said Williams, who ran the third leg. “To win as many medals as I have is incredible”.
