Mo Farah repeated his incredible London Olympic feat at the World Championships, following his win in the 10,000 meters on Saturday with gold in the 5,000 on Friday.
Farah moved to the lead around the 2,000-meter mark and held off Kenyans Isiah Koech and Thomas Longosiwa and Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet on the final lap to win in 13 minutes, 26.98 seconds. Farah dropped to his knees, kissed the blue Moscow track and covered his head in his hands after a hard-fought victory. Yes, he did the Mobot, too.
“I was feeling a bit tired in the 10k, and it (slow pace) played into my hands,” Farah told NBC Sports reporter Lewis Johnson on Universal Sports. “Everybody’s watching you. Everybody knows what you’re doing, so to do (the double) again, it’s hard work.”
Gebrhiwet won silver in 13:27.26, and Koech got bronze in the same time. Three Americans made the top 10 -- Bernard Lagat (sixth), Galen Rupp (eighth) and Ryan Hill (10th).
World Track and Field Championships broadcast schedule
British middle distance great Seb Coe told British press that if Farah won the 5,000, he would be the greatest British track and field athlete of all time. That would mean bettering Olympic champions Daley Thompson, Kelly Holmes and Coe and Roger Bannister, the first man to run a sub-4-minute mile.
In 2012, Farah became the seventh man to sweep the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000, joining Hannes Kolehmainen (1912), Emil Zatopek (1952), Vladimir Kuts (1956), Lasse Viren (1972, ’76), Miruts Yifter (1980) and Kenenisa Bekele (2004).
The World Championships have only been contested since 1983. Bekele is the only other man to accomplish the double at a worlds, doing so in 2009.
Farah, 30, is set to move up to the marathon next year and may enter that event at the 2016 Olympics. He also expressed a desire to race Usain Bolt in a charity event at a middle distance.
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