Despite a trip and a wave along the way, Mo Farah won his second 10,000m Olympic gold.
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Mo Farah feared his hopes of defending the Olympic 10,000 metre title had vanished when he suffered a fall en route to a superb victory at Rio 2016.
Farah wasn’t the only Briton in a title defence and just like on “Super Saturday” in London four years ago, while Farah was running Greg Rutherford was in action in the long jump final, while Jessica Ennis-Hill was contesting the heptathlon javelin.
Until that moment, the London Olympics 10,000m and 5000m champion had been in complete command of the race, moving from the back of the field to the front easily in a sign of his incredible combination of stamina and speed.
Kenya’s Paul Kipngetich Tanui finished with the silver less than half a second behind Farah, Tamirat Tola of Ethiopa taking third.
Olympic silver medalist and former world champion Steve Cram, who now works as a commentator for the BBC said:”The manner of his victory was a familiar one, but this takes him into a place where no other British athlete has been”.
“I got really emotional as I crossed the line”. So I have worked on that and I believe I will deliver.
“I was not going to let it go”.
It was his eighth successive win in the 5,000 or 10,000m at a world championships or Olympics since 2011, when Ibrahim Jeilan beat him over 10,000m in the Daegu world championships.
Britain’s Mo Farah is golden again in Rio.
At around eight minutes in Farah caused panic in the field by briefly going to the front, which caused several to move forward.
“I know 7.90 metres is not good but it was just a matter of making (the) finals”, Rutherford said.
“I bumped into him, there was a lot of pushing”, Rupp said.
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.
Jamaican Thompson powered ahead after the half-way stage to break clear of the rest of the field for the women’s 100m gold, with 10.71s.
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He also won the 5000m and 10,000m titles at the two world championships held since the London 2012 Olympic Games, meaning he could achieve a unique “quadruple-double” in Brazil, by winning the two long distance races at two consecutive Olympic Games and two consecutive world championships.
