Ten of 25 laps into the Olympic Games 10,000-meter final and a night
when Great Britain’s Mo Farah was chasing the likes of Zatopek, Viren
and Gebrselassie through history, the unthinkable happened.
Mo Farah, the reigning Olympic and World 10,000 and 5,000 champion,
crashed to the track after getting entangled with Nike Oregon Project
teammate Galen Rupp of the United States.
Mo Farah’s immediate thought was the same as most at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday night.
“Is the race over? Is the race?” Farah recalled asking himself. “I just kept telling myself ‘No! No! No!’”
Mo Farah answered with a resounding victory, blowing past Kenya’s Paul
Tanui in the final 200 to join the great Czech Emil Zatopek, Finland’s
Lasse Viren and Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie and Kenesia Bekele as the
only men in history to successfully defend the Olympic 10,000 gold
medal.
Despite Mo Farah’s slim margin of victory – 27 minutes, 5.17 seconds to
27:05.64 – the result never seemed in doubt after the Briton rejoined
the leader near the 5,800-meter mark. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola took the
bronze medal in 27:06.26 with Rupp, the silver medalist to Farah four
years ago in London, slipping to fifth in 27:08.92.
Kenya's Paul Tanui won the Silver and Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola won the Bronze Medal
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