Mo Farah defends 10000m Olympic title in dramatic final

Team GB’s Mo Farah wins the men’s 10,000m to claim an unprecedented third Olympic gold medal. Not the assembled power of Kenya’s best trying to wear him down.

The Briton was passed by Tanui after going through the bell, but Farah held his nerve as a grimacing Tanui faded to time 55.37sec for the final lap. A sweep of both events would only further cement Farah’s place among the all-time great distance runners.

And Farah said: “That was really emotional”.

“I work hard and spend a lot of time away form my family and that can be gone”.

A time of 27:05.17 saw the 33-year-old win his third Olympic gold medal and successfully defend his 10000m win from the London 2012 Olympic Games. Instead, this race is scheduled to be part of NBC’s primetime coverage, running from 8 p.m.to midnight Saturday on KGW (Comcast 8/708).

It appeared Farah was clipped by training partner Gaylen Rupp.

“I bumped into him”. Another gold medal added to the tally, and done so in thrilling style.

“It did take a lot out of me”, Farah said in a post-race interview with the BBC.

Then the Kenyans chimed in.

Once again Farah relied on his finishing kick to out-sprint Tanui and crossed the line with his hands placed on top of his head in his signature “Mobot” pose. And after his comeback from the fall, they would perhaps stand a chance. But Farah likely would have won the race by an even greater margin if it weren’t for an incident that almost took him out of contention. He found it with about 150 to go and opened up a gap on Tanui.

Tanui made his move for home with 300m remaining but Farah reeled him in and surged past him on the final bend to lead the field home.