Mo Farah got Britain off to a sensational start on the opening night of the World Athletics Championships in Russia on Saturday night and made history in the process.
The double Olympic champion claimed a thrilling victory in the men’s 10,000m in the first track final of the 14th championships, and became the first British man to win a world title over 25 laps.
Fitter, stronger and faster than last year, Farah was unquestionably the class act on the night.
It was a fascinating run, with the Londoner unexpectedly taking the lead 19 laps out, a move he hoped would slow the race down.
Instead, he was quickly swallowed up by the chasing field and at one point fell back to 17th place before easing his way to the front with three laps remaining.
Then, in a nail-biting dash for the line, Farah saw off 2011 champion Ibrahim Jeilan to take gold in 27 mins 21.71 secs.
Britain’s greatest distance runner later reflected on winning the race that got away from him in Daegu two years ago, when he was overtaken by Jeilan in the final 150 metres.
“I knew Jeilan and what he was capable of, so it was important that I had something left,” Farah said.
“On the last lap, I could see he was there and I was thinking: ‘You’ve got to make this lap worth it, but at the same time you’ve got to have something left at the end’.
The win suggests Farah can now win the 25-lap race in several ways, regardless of the Kenyan and Ethiopian team tactics.
Farah also said his win made up for the time he was away from his family his wife Tania, his stepdaughter and his twin baby girls on his long training stints In America.
“My two girls were born just after the Olympics and I’ve been away from them so much,” he added.
The Briton now has the Olympic and world 10,000m titles, and by the end of these championships he could have matched the feat of Kenenisa Bekele, the only man to win double gold in the men’s distance events at both the Olympics and world championships.
Britain had a disastrous start to the championships when Steve Lewis missed out on qualifying in the pole vault competition.
“It was a tough day,” he said. “It was three attempts that didn’t really go my way and I’m really disappointed. I’m sorry if I’ve let anyone down.”