Mo Farah secures historic Olympic golden double with 5000m final win

12 years ago | Posted in: olympics | 917 Views

Great Britain’s Mo Farah won his second gold medal of London 2012 when he powered to victory in the 5000m final to add to his 10000m triumph.

He began the race at the back of the Kenyan and Ethiopian-dominated field, before moving up to the middle as the athletes remained evenly spread out but with no-one making any real bid to stretch things or seize the initiative.

With three laps to go and the pace gradually increasing, Farah moved to the front of the field and a last lap of 52.9 seconds saw him power to victory ahead of Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel and Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya, in a time of 13:41.66.

‘The American tried to come past me but I knew had to just hold on,’ said Farah afterwards.

‘I wanted a gold medal for each of my two girls on the way [Farah’s wife is heavily pregnant with twins]. They could come any day now!

‘It has all worked out well. Two gold medals. Who would have thought that?

The race was the first event of the final athletics session of the London 2012 Games, and Farah brought the stadium to its feet for the second Saturday night running with another thrilling performance, following his triumph in the 10000m last Saturday.

Farah’s victory also means that, for just the third time since World War Two, Great Britain have won four track and field golds

The other two four-gold Games were Tokyo in 1964 and Moscow in 1980, when there was an American boycott of the Games.

Farah’s win means he has become just the seventh man in history to complete the 5000m and 10000m gold medal double at one Olympic Games, joining the likes of Emil Zatopek, Lasse Viren and Miruts Yifter.

Ref: http://www.metro.co.uk

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