BARCELONA, (Reuters) – Briton Mo Farah destroyed his rivals to win the European 5,000 metres title yesterday and become only the fifth man to claim the continental distance double after Tuesday’s gold medal in the 10,000.
Farah’s tactics were spot-on at a breezy Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, the Somalia-born 27-year-old upping the pace with three laps left and kicking strongly off the final bend to leave Spain’s Jesus Espana and Hayle Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan trailing.
Flinging his arms wide as he crossed the line, Farah fell to his knees and kissed the pale-blue track before bursting into tears and embracing local favourite Espana, who pipped him to the gold four years ago.
“I didn’t think my legs would let me do it but they did,” a jubilant Farah told reporters.
“My main focus now is to get ready for the world championships next year and then the (2012 London) Olympics,” he added. “As long as I remain injury free, I’ll keep training hard.”
The first Briton to take gold in the 10,000, Farah won yesterday’s shorter event in 13:31.18 ahead of Espana, who sportingly congratulated his vanquisher after the race, in 13:33.12 and Ibrahimov with 13:34.15.
The sense of relief was palpable for the lithe Londoner, who lists his sporting heroes as boxer Muhammad Ali and soccer player Ryan Giggs and has also taken inspiration from marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe. The heavily-pregnant Radcliffe, wearing a black dress and with her blonde hair cascading around her shoulders, was in the Olympic Stadium crowd and greeted the Union Jack-draped Farah as he completed his lap of honour.
“I’ve waited for this for four years,” Farah said in reference to being pipped to the gold by Espana in 2006.
“Last time I came second by less than half a second so I had to dig in for four years and get stronger.”
Weird Experience
Farah fled Somalia with his parents in 1993, arriving in London where he struggled with English.
His talent was spotted by a school sports teacher who persuaded him to join the local athletics club.
He said he had last visited the country of his birth three years ago and had found the experience “weird”.
“Life ain’t easy and I thought, yeah, this is the life I left behind,” he added.
“You have to appreciate what you have in life. It might have been a completely different game for me if I had stayed there and hadn’t come over to England aged eight.”
Four men have previously achieved the men’s 5,000m-10,000m double: Czech Emil Zatopek in 1950, Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak of Poland in 1958, Finn Juha Vaatainen in 1971 and Salvatore Antibo of Italy 1990.
