BEIJING – With a devastating last lap, Mo Farah claimed his third world 5000m title in succession at the IAAF World Championships ahead of Kenya’s Caleb Ndiku and Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet Mo Farah won his third successive world 5000m title on the bounce with a devastating last lap timed at 52.4 at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing on Saturday (29).
Farah had already won the 10,000m and come through the 5000m heats where he survived a trip on the last lap to qualify but any fatigue the reigning champion might have been carrying in his legs wasn’t exposed. The pace in the early stages was pedestrian with the opening two kilometres covered just inside 15-minute tempo.
In a largely uneventful race, the pace didn’t pick up until the last two laps when Commonwealth champion Caleb Ndiku made a long run for home with 750 metres remaining which tore the tightly bunched pack of fifteen runners asunder.
Farah usually takes control of these championship races before the ball but Ndiku wisely held the Brit off as they battled down the home straight for the penultimate time and led as the bell sounded with 12:57.71 showing on the clock.
But Ndiku, who can also boast a fast 1500m PB of 3:29.50 set two years ago in the same race where Farah set the European record of 3:28.81, couldn’t open up more than five metres on the reigning two-time champion despite covering the penultimate lap in 54.24.
Farah drew even with Ndiku at the top of the home straight but the Kenyan couldn’t offer any sort of riposte once the 32-year-old sped past in the last eighty metres. Farah was the world champion yet again.
Such was the cagey nature of the race in the first four kilometres, Farah’s winning time of 13:50.38 was the slowest in a global championships since the 1968 Olympic Games which were staged at altitude in Mexico City.
Surging with two laps to go is a tactic which hadn’t been employed against Farah until today but Ndiku still came up short. He claimed silver just ahead of the fast-finishing Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet who outkicked Farah over 3000m at the start of the year in Doha.
Ndiku was happy to claim a medal in a season which has been ravaged by injury but he admitted he might have misjudged his tactics slightly. “I knew that Farah is like a 100m runner in the finish, so my plan to kill him was to push him a bit earlier, but maybe it was already too late,” he said.
For Farah, this was his seventh global track title win in succession. The last time he has been headed at a championships was over 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships where he was pipped to the line by Ibrahim Jeylan.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
News source – worldrunning.com
