Mo Farah wins gold in 10,000m to retain Olympic title at Rio 2016

Standard Sport14 August 2016

Mo Farah became the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals by retaining his 10,000 metres title in Rio.

The 33-year-old continued his unprecedented spell of long-distance domination by landing his eighth straight global crown, but he did it the hard way after falling to the track following a trip from training partner Galen Rupp.

He recovered to respond to the challenge laid down by Kenya's Paul Tanui, bursting past him down the home straight and crossing the line in 27 minutes 5.17 seconds.

Victory saw him eclipse the Olympic achievements of the likes of athletics double champions Sebastian Coe, Daley Thompson and Kelly Holmes.

Farah headed to Brazil on the back of running his fastest 5,000 metres since before the last Olympics and the quickest in the world this year at the London Anniversary Games. It was some parting statement.

"I'm in decent shape", he had said. He was not lying.

He said he was prepared for an army of Kenyans to try and crush his challenge in Rio. But then they have tried for four years to find his number. And still they cannot succeed.

Olympic champion: Mo Farah 
(OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Farah was content to sit at the back of the field, with the pace slow in the early stages before taking closer order.

Disaster nearly struck when he tumbled to the floor after tangling with Rupp, but he got up, gave his training partner the thumbs up, and got right back into the mix.

With 300 metres to go Tanui pressed the accelerator in a bid to neutralise the Briton's renowned finishing speed, but Farah was not done and powered past the Kenyan before holding on to win by 0.47secs.

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