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Great Britain’s Mo Farah made history – becoming the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals.
GB’s long distance King claimed gold in the 10,000m last night in twenty-seven minutes and five seconds. He overcame a mid-race fall and produced his well-known sprint finish to race clear of the field in the final 100m.
Prior to the Olympics, the Kenyan athletes had said they would run the finish out of the Team GB athlete. That proved not to be the case with slow opening laps enabling Farah to relax at the back with ease.
Many supporters of Farah had their hearts in their mouths half way through the race after he fell over. His training partner Galen Rupp accidentally tripped the Team GB athlete but he quickly recovered to fulfill his race plan.
“At one point I thought the race was over and I managed to get through it. In my mind, all I was thinking about was my daughter. I had promised I was going to get a medal so I wasn’t going to let her down,” Farah told Sky News.
He then moved forward gradually to remind them of his presence. Before kicking in the final lap of the race to beat Kenya’s Paul Tanui by just over half a second, who claimed silver, with Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola further back in third.
Mo Farah successfully defended his world double-double in Beijing last year winning the 10,000m and 5,000m titles. Great Britain’s Farah will hope to do the double-double in the Olympics to add to his World double-double. He comes back to the track to competes in the 5,000m on Wednesday. He won both the 5,000m and the 10,000m at the London 2012 Olympics.
