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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