After scary fall, unbeatable Mo Farah wins 10,000m gold in Rio

#GBR‘s Mo Farah overcomes early fall to defend his 10,000m #gold medal. #Rio2016 https://t.co/Y4kE8fcEKs

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 14, 2016

Britain’s Mo Farah is golden again in Rio.

The reigning 5,000m and 10,000m gold medallist bounced back from a tough fall midway through the race to win in a thrilling finish. Kenya’s Paul Tanui made a spirited effort to outkick Farah in the last 400m but couldn’t hold on, settling for silver. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, who worked with his fellow East Africans to try to finally thwart Farah’s Olympic dominance, placed third.

#Atletismo | Mo Farah por los suelos al paso de los 4000m. Se levanta, da el OK y revalida el #ORO. De otro planeta pic.twitter.com/bguQPoQLP1

— Fernando Murciego (@fermurciego) August 14, 2016

The race opened at a leisurely pace, with a large group flowing effortlessly around the Olympic track in Rio. It was mild but humid, which seemed to effect certain runners, including Canada’s Mo Ahmed, later in the race. Initially, Farah sat at the very back, surveying the rest of the 34-man field. Eventually, he moved up to fifth, just behind a group of East Africans, including contender Geoffrey Kamworor.

Farah and American training partner Galen Rupp made incidental contact, causing Farah to go down hard. The rest of the field had to dodge him, as he shot up quickly and rejoined the back of the pack. Farah was able to shake off the nasty fall and moved up towards the front.

Ethiopia’s Yigrem Demelash made a couple of daring efforts to push the pace from the front as the group East Africans were running out of track to attack Farah, who has easily the best finish in distance running.

In the end, it Tanui sensed that the race was falling into Farah’s hands yet again, and pushed very hard into the penultimate turn. But Farah matched him and ultimately overtook him on the final turn, closing out yet another gold medal victory on the world’s biggest stage. His 27:05 winning time was just four seconds off the Olympic record.

Canada’s Mo Ahmed, who will also race in the 5,000m and is the national record holder in that event, seemed to come undone as the pace quickened. He faded back badly, and seemed to give up, struggling physically. He jogged in the remainder of the race, crossing the line as the last finisher in 29:32, for 32^nd.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK
1	2452	Mohamed FARAH	GBR	27:05.17
2	2698	Paul Kipngetich TANUI	KEN	27:05.64	SB
3	2400	Tamirat TOLA	ETH	27:06.26
4	2392	Yigrem DEMELASH	ETH	27:06.27
5	3097	Galen RUPP	USA	27:08.92	SB
6	3015	Joshua Kiprui CHEPTEGEI	UGA	27:10.06	PB
7	2691	Bedan Karoki MUCHIRI	KEN	27:22.93
8	2344	Zersenay TADESE	ERI	27:23.86
9	2337	Nguse AMLOSOM	ERI	27:30.79	SB
10	2166	Abraham Naibei CHEROBEN	BRN	27:31.86	PB
11	2677	Geoffrey Kipsang KAMWOROR	KEN	27:31.94
12	2812	Zane ROBERTSON	NZL	27:33.67	NR
13	2997	Polat Kemboi ARIKAN	TUR	27:35.50	PB
14	3082	Leonard Essau KORIR	USA	27:35.65	SB
15	2397	Abadi HADIS	ETH	27:36.34
16	2045	David MCNEILL	AUS	27:51.71
17	2654	Suguru OSAKO	JPN	27:51.94
18	2904	Stephen MOKOKA	RSA	27:54.57
19	3081	Shadrack KIPCHIRCHIR	USA	27:58.32	SB
20	2086	Bashir ABDI	BEL	28:01.49
21	2822	Luis OSTOS	PER	28:02.03
22	3021	Moses Martin KURONG	UGA	28:03.38
23	3024	Timothy TOROITICH	UGA	28:04.84	SB
24	2341	Goitom KIFLE	ERI	28:15.99
25	2477	Andrew VERNON	GBR	28:19.36	SB
26	2169	El Hassan ELABBASSI	BRN	28:20.17
27	2083	Olivier IRABARUTA	BDI	28:32.75
28	2051	Ben ST LAWRENCE	AUS	28:46.32
29	2659	Yuta SHITARA	JPN	28:55.23
30	2649	Kota MURAYAMA	JPN	29:02.51
31	2465	Ross MILLINGTON	GBR	29:14.95
32	2188	Mohammed AHMED	CAN	29:32.84
	2165	Hassan CHANI	BRN	DNF
	3004	Ali KAYA	TUR	DNF