Great Britain's Mo Farah has defended his 10,000 meter crown with a victory at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. The Brit continues his rich "run of form" which includes victories at the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 IAAF World Championships.
At the start of the race, Farah was up there in the lead pack with Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor up front. American Galen Rupp was just hanging in the middle of the pack to open up.
The last time Farah was in Beijing's famous structure The Bird's Nest, he did not qualify for the 10,000 meter final at the 2008 Games. He looked dejected, depressed, and questioned if he had a future in the sport after that. Clearly though, it's gone all right for him since then.
At the 1000 meter mark, it was Paul Tanui of Kenya leading the splits. He was part of the three-man of contingency of Kipsang, Bedan Muchiri, and himself that was trying to dethrone the defending World Champion. American Galen Rupp also had a shot to take a medal finishing second behind Farah at the London Olympics but missed out on the podium at the last World Championships finishing in fourth. He was beat out by Paul Tanui by just under two seconds for the bronze.
We move forward to the halfway mark of the race where Muchiri was leading with a time of 13:40:83 with his two countryman just trailing less than a second behind. Rupp was in sixth with a time or 13:41:69 with Farah right behind him.
With 1000 meters to go, it was the same pack of five that we've been talking about the whole time battling it out for the medals: Farah, Kamworor, Tanui, Muchiri, and Rupp. These five were battling it out for position in the first lane, but the lapped runners were not moving to the outer lanes (which does not show track etiquette) to allow the top runners their space to jockey for positioning.
Finally with 500 meters to go, the defending World Champion stormed out to the lead for the first time. Just after the bell rung for the final lap, Farah lost his balance running into one of the runners he was lapping, but like the champion he was, quickly gained his composure as if he never lost a stride at all.
With 300 to go, Tanui decided to ramp up the pressure and attack with Kamworor to put the pressure on Farah. In the final straightaway, it was these three men racing it out for the medals. Farah was in the lead but both Kenyans were right over each of his shoulders, but despite throwing the kitchen sink at the Brit, he broke away in the homestretch with his arms out wide to take home the gold with a winning time of 27:01:13.
Kamworor finished with the silver (27:01:76) and Tanui earned the bronze (27:02:83). Rupp was the top American finisher with a time of 27:08:91. The time of Farah's was third-fastest in World Championships history only behind Kenenisa Bekele (26:46:31-2009 and 26:49:57-2003). He looks to complete his third consecutive 5000 and 10,000 double with a gold on August 29th.