Despite a mid-race fall, Mohamed Farah won the 10,000m in Rio on Saturday (13 August) night, becoming the first British athlete to win three gold medals on the track and only the fourth man to defend an Olympic 10,000m title.
Farah charged past Kenyan Paul Tanui on the last lap and retained the title he won on that unforgettable night in London four years ago.
There was a scare earlier in the race when Farah, 33, was tripped by his training partner, USA’s Galen Rupp on the 10th lap. But the Briton quickly got up and signaled all was OK with a thumbs up.
‘Oh my God, that’s it’
“When I went down, I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s it.’ I just got up and wanted to stick with the guys and stay strong. It’s never easy but everyone knows what I can do,” Farah said.
“I thought about all my hard work and that it could all be gone in a minute. I wasn’t going to let it go. I got up quickly. I thought about my family. It made me emotional.”
Farah worked his way back up to third with 11 laps to go and was first going into the bell lap, but Tanui made a charge with 300m to go and led until Farah surged again and sprinted away to win in 27 minutes and 5.17 seconds. Tanui held on for silver in 27:05.64 and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took bronze.
Farah has not lost a major race since taking silver in the 10,000m at the 2011 world championships. His Rio 2016 plans also include a defence of the 5000m title he won in London.
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..
