Britain's Mo Farah outsmarted his rivals with one of the fastest races of his life to capture the 10,000-metre world championship title in London. Farah has been unstoppable over the past six years at world and Olympic level, including this race, his eighth consecutive major victory over the 10,000m. He accomplished it with an unbelievable turn of pace in the final laps that, as usual, demoralised the opposition.
But this time both Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who posted a personal best and Kenyan Olympic silver medallist Paul Tanui pushed Farah all the way - at one point literally when he briefly stumbled into the infield. The African athletes tried to break Farah, but the Briton kept his pace steady and he made a move at the 11 minute mark, gesticulating to the other runners, and then again with three laps remaining. Farah was cheered by the raucous home crowd in the London Stadium, and his winning time of 26 minutes 49. 51 sec was 40 seconds faster than his London Olympic time back in 2012, even though he claimed last week that he was not in his best shape.
After crossing the line, Farah sought out his family and his wife Tania, four year old daughters Aisha and Aman and young son Hussein who joined him on the track for his celebratory victory lap.
Farah said: “I knew at 12 laps to go when they went hard from there I knew it was going to be tough. It was about believing in my sprint finish and knowing that I have been in that position before. It helped a lot having that experience.’’ Farah will contest the 5000, and will then retire from the track to concentrate on marathons.
