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Athletics World Championships

Farah makes running history under pressure from Kenya’s Ndiku

“Digging in” and “hanging” were the expressions Mo Farah used to describe the final 800 metres of his 5,000 metres race on Saturday night at the Bird’s Nest stadium. The Briton was chasing an unprecedented 'triple-double' of Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 metres, followed by consecutive world crowns. Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku’s burst was putting that in jeopardy.

Britain's Mo Farah finishes ahead of Kenya's Caleb Ndiku in the 10,000 mètres.
Britain's Mo Farah finishes ahead of Kenya's Caleb Ndiku in the 10,000 mètres. Reuters/Lucy Nicholson TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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“Caleb really put his foot down with two laps to go,” said Farah. “At that point I was just trying to relax to see what I could do towards the last lap. But he was moving so fast.”

The Kenyan said he decided to speed up because the pack was too bunched so close to finishing line. The surge spread out the field and set up the last lap showdown between him and Farah.

Farah emerged supreme. It was his fifth world championship gold. Two have come in the 10,000 metres, the first in Moscow two years ago and the second during these championships in Beijing. Saturday night’s record third consecutive title in the 5,000m also brought with it the historic achievement of becoming the first man to defend the 5,000 and 10,000m double.

“It’s been incredible to make history and keep winning medals,” said the 32-year-old. “It’s not an easy thing. I just have to stay free from injuries, stay focused, which I have done. It’s something that I’ve worked so hard for. I’m just really pleased to be making history.”

While he stands unchallenged in the 5,000 metres, Farah still has some way to go to match the feats of Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele in the 10,000.

The two Ethiopians each won four consecutive world titles, effectively sewing up the gold medal for their country between the Stuttgart world championships of 1993 and Berlin in 2009. Their compatriot Ibrahim Jeylan pipped Farah to the crown in Daegu in 2011 before Farah broke the hegemony.

Rather like the Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers, who became the first European to win the 200m after more than a decade of American or Jamaican dominance, Farah has shown that the endurance running events do not have to be an Ethiopian or Kenyan certainty.

But Farah admitted that he was fortunate.

“It was a pretty fast in the 10,000m so to come back and have to do heats for the 5000m was difficult,” he said. “I was really pleased early on in the race when the pace was so slow. I thought they might have picked it up just after the first couple of laps and perhaps tried to kill off my energy a little bit more.”

It didn’t happen and the field paid the price.

Ndiku, 22, will learn.

“He’s a great athlete,” said Farah of the Kenyan, who was out for much of the season with a knee injury. “He’s a class athlete. He’s still young and he put a mark down. He really did test me. It was just a matter of my experience which made the difference and digging deep.”

Next up for Farah in a couple of weeks will be the Great North Run. There he’ll be performing in front of home fans on 13 September before his season winds down.
Next year’s Olympic Games in Rio are looming and the chance to defend the 5,000m and 10,000m titles so dramatically won in London three years ago. As the man to beat, he’ll definitely have more digging to do.

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