Fly Mo! Farah adds 10,000m World Championship crown to Olympic title with thrilling victory in Moscow

Mo Farah underlined his status as Great Britain’s greatest ever distance runner by winning the world 10,000 metres title in Moscow.

The double Olympic champion exacted revenge over Ibrahim Jeilan in a pulsating race, taking the lead with two laps to go and refusing to relinquish his lead as he won his fourth global gold medal.

No Briton has ever achieved that feat and, with the chance to retain his world 5,000m title still to come this week, Farah could yet add more gold to his impressive collection.

Two years in Daegu he was passed by Jeilan with metres remaining; a look of pure agony consuming Farah’s face as he realised he would have to settle for silver. He responded by winning 5,000m gold and both Olympic titles and, in 2013, it was the Briton looking over his shoulder at the man from Ethiopia behind him.

Farah won in 27mins 21.71secs, a 54.49sec last lap proving too much for Jeilan, who took silver, and bronze medallist Paul Kipngetich Tanui from Kenya, who did most of the early running.

A delighted Farah told the BBC: ‘I had the experience from a couple of years ago and this time I saw him (Jeilan) coming at the bell so I knew he was always behind me so it was important I had something left and it was nice to win it and beat him this time after finishing second (in 2011).

‘I nearly went down a couple of times but thank God I didn’t go down and I just managed to cover every move. It was important that it was me and my training partner Galen Rupp working together. We knew from the pace that the guys knew we’ve got speed so they were going out there to take a lot out of me.

‘I didn’t want to lose again. I remember a couple of years ago I was second and I was just digging in, digging in and making sure I didn’t over-stride, that important. I kept looking across and you could see in my eyes, just making sure they didn’t come after me.

‘It was nice to come out here and win it. That was the one missing. It was definitely well worth it.’

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As Farah eyes double gold, GB chief says there's no stopping Mo in Moscow

It will take an ‘amazing performance’ to stop Mo Farah becoming Great Britain’s first 10,000m world champion in Moscow on Saturday, according to performance director Neil Black.

Two years ago in Daegu, South Korea, Farah was overtaken by Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan a few metres from the line, with a look of agony etched on his face as he was forced to settle for silver.

The Briton responded by winning the world 5,000m title, then did the double at the Olympic Games last year. A year on from his second gold in London, Farah is in sensational form, with another 10,000m and 5,000m double surely on the cards.

He has the stamina, having run half of the London Marathon in April in preparation for his full debut over that distance next year, and the speed. A 50.89sec last lap to win a 5,000m in Gateshead earlier this season and the British 1,500m record are testament to that.

There are 35 men in the 10,000m field, so the Ethiopian and Kenyan trios may be well advised to hurry the pace along on the blue track of the Luzhniki Stadium and try to string the field out. Farah tripping up may be the only way they can beat him.

Black said: ‘Mo will, without doubt, expect to win. It will take an amazing performance for that not to happen. He is in great shape.’

The man himself shares Black’s confidence. ‘The guys have seen me run fast and they’ll have to come up with something,’ said Farah.

Black declines to set medal targets —unlike the man in charge two years ago, Charles van Commenee — and would say only that British Athletics would ‘burn their ships’ as each athlete attempts to perform to the best of his or her ability. Matching the seven medals, including two golds, that Great Britain won in 2011, or even the six  medals — four of them golds — at London 2012 will, however, be a difficult task.

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill is absent with an achilles injury, while world 400m hurdles gold medallist Dai Greene and Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford have been  hampered by calf and hamstring injuries respectively in the lead-up to this event. Black, a physiotherapist, said Rutherford’s recovery from a serious injury in Paris just five weeks ago ‘continues to mystify’, but said the 26-year-old is ‘full of confidence’ ahead of his qualification round on Wednesday.

Olympic high jump bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz has cleared 2.31 metres outdoors only once this season and looks a different, far less confident athlete to the one who equalled Steve Smith’s British outdoor record with 2.37m in Lausanne last August.

But Christine Ohuruogu, a silver medallist in London, has a real opportunity to regain the world 400m title she won in 2007.

The 29-year-old has always been an accomplished championship performer, peaking when it  matters most, and showed her hot streak of form by running 50sec flat — her fourth fastest time ever and quickest outside a major championships — to win the  London Anniversary Games two weeks ago. The athlete who took her Olympic title, Sanya Richards-Ross, has not made the USA team after undergoing toe surgery but Amantle Montsho, from Botswana, has broken the 50-second barrier four times already this season.

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