Farah, the winner of the 10,000m on Tuesday, powered to an emotional victory in the 5000m to complete the first-ever long distance double for Great Britain, and the first at these championships since 1990.
“It feels fantastic to have won both races,” said Farah, who finished second behind Spaniard Jesus Espana in this race four years ago. “There was a point when I thought my gold medal chance was under threat and I was also a little concerned about my knees but I pulled through to win it.” That didn’t show in his ferocious front-running effort over the final three laps.
Taking the lead with 1200m to go, he had Hayle Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan, Spaniards Espana and Alemayeho Bezabeh, and Noureddine Smail for company but with just one lap remaining, only Ibrahimov and Espana were still in contention. Farah put an end to the guessing game when he began his closing surge midway through the final bend, building an insurmountable gap as he cruised through the finish in 13:31.18.
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