The 33-year-old was nearly felled for the second race in succession on the final lap before qualifying as one of the first five finishers ahead of the final on Sunday 21 August.
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The committee will have the final decision on whether the award is bestowed, but it looks certain…
MO FARAH is on track for another Olympic Games 5000m and 10000m double.
On August 13 Farah made it a second Olympic gold in a row in the 10,000m, even surviving a fall.
“So I just have to get myself back in that frame of mind and get ready for it. It’s hard mentally when you go down”, an emotional Farah told reporters.
They will be looking to right that wrong in the Maracana and also win the gold medal in the soccer tournament for the first time in the nation’s history. “I still have to now recover, just lock myself in a room and just get ready for this race”.
The pair will be fresher for the final, without a 10,000m race in their legs, and are out to deny Farah his double-double.
“When I went down it didn’t take a lot out of me and I got up quickly, I thought about how much I’d worked and I wasn’t going to let it affect me”.
Should Farah also defend his 5,000m title, he would become the first athlete since Finland’s Lasse Viren in 1976 to retain two Olympic distance titles.
When Farah tripped and fell in the middle of his 10,000m final, he was visibly shocked, but recovered formidably to claim gold.
She said: “I’m of the generation that can remember Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Daley Thompson etc, and those battles will always be in my memory. I’m still hungry and still want it, which is the most important thing”.
Like at London 2012, there were no medals for Team GB on Day 12 of the Games, but brilliance on the track and in the hockey field ensured that the Olympics maintained their momentum. That’s what I did a little bit after I won (the 10,000m).
And he knows the trio of challengers – Muktar Edris, Dejen Gebremeskel and Hagos Gebrhiwet – he will face this time around have the potential to upset him, provided they can run the finishing speed out of him by making the race quick. “It’s just because of the heat and having run 10km, but just mentally getting back in that zone”.
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“You do take yourself away from it sometimes”, he added after advancing alongside countryman Andrew Butchart, although fellow Briton Tom Farrell failed to make the cut.
