5,000 metres, Men

On the second night of London’s Olympic track & field, Britain’s Mo Farah had rocked the Olympic Stadium when he won the 10,000 metres. Seven days later he toed the line for the 5K final, an event he had won at the 2011 World Championships, with all Britain looking for a distance double gold. His biggest challengers were actually expected to be two Americans – Bernard Lagat, World Champion in the 1,500 and 5,000 at the 2007 World Championships; and Galen Rupp, Farah’s training partner, who had trailed behind him while winning silver in the 10K.

The final turned into a slow, tactical race, setting it up for the kickers, especially Lagat. Fully 10 of the 15 finalists came to the bell lap together, as Farah had taken the lead with 700 to go, with Rupp joining in with 600 left. But the pack passed Rupp and came after Farah, as several runners made attempts to go by him. But no one succeeded, Farah coming home in a final lap 52.9, and final straight of 13.1 to win his second gold medal. The silver went to Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel, who also ran 52.9 on the final lap, but could never get past Farah’s shoulder. Kenyan Thomas Longosiwa was next to them at the head of the straight but could not match their finish, taking bronze, just ahead of Lagat in fourth. Rupp did not have the kick he needed and placed seventh.

The British-mad Olympic Stadium exploded on the final lap, with Track & Field News noting that the sound reached 140 decibels, jet takeoff levels, and it rocked the stadium enough to shake the finish camera and make the final pictures too blurry, requiring use of the back-up infield camera. Farah’s 5/10K distance double marked the eighth time this had been achieved at the Olympics, the first by Finland’s Hannes Kolehmainen in 1912 and the last at Beijing by Kenenisa Bekele.