LONDON
— Same stadium. Same result. Faster time.
Five years to the day after he won his first global
10,000-meter title at the 2012 Olympics, Great Britain’s Mo Farah returned to
the same London Stadium track and won his last to cap off day one of the 2017
IAAF World Championships. Farah pulled away in the homestretch to win in
26:49.51, sending a capacity crowd of over 60,000 into a state of delirium.
Farah had to run faster than he ever has in a
championship 10,000, with a rotating cast of Africans taking turns pushing the
pace. But, as has always been the case since his first title back in 2011,
Farah was ready for the challenge and when he took the lead with 640 meters to
go, he would not relinquish it. From that point on, the stadium was engulfed in
a wall of noise as the partisan crowd roared him home. And once again, their
man delivered.
Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the 20-year old who signaled
his intentions early with a shocking 61.02 opening lap, ran bravely throughout,
and finished in 26:49.94 to earn silver, his first career global medal at the
senior level. Kenya’s Paul Tanui (26:50.60) was third for the third Worlds in a
row.
But this was about Farah’s brilliance, which seems to
know no limits. Farah is 34 years old, absolutely ancient for a 10,000 man —
six years older than anyone else in the top 12 — yet here he was, running his
fastest time since 2011, and the fastest by anyone since his former training
partner Galen Rupp set the American record back in 2014.
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