- The noise as Mo Farah raised his arms to salute a second golden triumph reached an astonishing 140 decibels, so loud that it caused interference on the official finish-line photograph. A glorious Games had reached an almost fancifully perfect conclusion and the entire Olympic Stadium, transfixed by the tenacity of Britain’s wiry Somali-born hero, appeared caught up in a state of delirium.
An audience encompassing everybody from the Mayor of London to David Beckham,
the Prime Minister to Arnold Schwarzenegger, hollered until they were hoarse as
they drank in the magnitude of Farah’s accomplishment. Brendan Foster, on his feet in the BBC commentary position, was in no doubt
in reflecting upon the riveting climax to this race, where Farah withstood a
ferocious late surge from Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel to add 5,000 metres gold
to the 10,000m title he had captured seven days earlier.
“That was the moment in the history of British athletics,” he said. “This man
is now among the greats and it has been such a privilege watching him grow up
and do it. Every Saturday night you turn up here, Mo Farah wins a gold medal.
How good is that?”
How good, indeed. This victory elevated Farah to the distance-running
pantheon, establishing him alongside Hannes Kolehmainen, Emil Zatopek, Vladimir
Kuts, Lasse Viren and Kenenisa Bekele as one of only six men to have won the
Olympic 5,000 and 10,000m double.
The historical significance was too much for the man of the hour to absorb.
Overwhelmed by the volume of the partisan clamour, which he described as a
“Mexican wave of sound”, he headed to the stands to give a calming kiss to his
wife Tania, who was expecting twins. Aptly, he dedicated this unforgettable
moment to his unborn baby girls.
While our abiding memories of the night are of the Farah celebrations,
slapping his head in trademark ‘Mo-bot’ style before planting a kiss on the
London track, it pays not to forget just how fiercely fought the race itself
was. A highly tactical affair at the outset, as Farah’s Ethiopian, Kenyan and
American rivals all jostled to unsettle him, its drama was only detonated in the
final mile.
Farah, exactly as he had in the 10,000m, assumed control, moving on to the
shoulder of the leading pack and taking up the running with 700m to go.
Confident in his finishing pace, which he had honed so meticulously under coach
Alberto Salazar at his Oregon training base, he threw down the challenge for his
adversaries to come past him and for the second time in a week they could not
respond.
Steve Cram, who called these last two laps home so memorably for the millions
of television viewers, did not understate the difficulty of Farah’s task.
“I enjoyed Mo’s 5,000 victory even more than I did his 10,000, and that was
brilliant enough,” he said. “With the 10,000 it was almost like waiting for the
inevitable to happen. The five was a much tougher ask.
“We simply had no idea how Mo would react to doubling up. Would the fact that
he had already won take away his drive or would he want more? This was a harder
race to win, and there was more tension, because it could have gone in so many
different ways. With two laps to go, there were four or five guys in with a good
chance, and I had no idea how it would pan out. So for Mo to deliver in those
circumstances, against that field, was incredible.”
Farah himself had admitted to fatigue from his exertions over 10,000m,
sparking concerns that he might not be able to produce his customary kick down
the finishing stretch again. And yet in the course of 13 minutes and 41 seconds
that combined patience, ruthlessness and unanswerable turn of speed, his iconic
status was assured. The nation embraced him unconditionally for his
single-mindedness and his slightly zany charm.
A Somali by birth but a Londoner since he was eight years old, Farah also
became a powerful emblem of the capital’s diversity. Indeed, as the figure known
henceforth simply as ‘Mo’ soaked up the ovation of the stadium’s 80,000 souls,
his eldest brother, Faisal, had walked four miles from his Somaliland homestead,
just to reach the nearest village with electricity so he could watch the race on
television.
Extraordinarily, even in the afterglow of Farah’s exploits, the night was not
finished. Usain Bolt, the only athlete who could rival him for star wattage
after a second successive Olympic sprint double, was required to bookend the
track and field programme with one last flourish and duly did so, leading his
Jamaican quartet home in the 4x100m in a world record of 36.84 sec.
On a day of heightened emotion all around, other stories of great pathos were
unfolding. At the Aquatics Centre, Tom Daley, 14 months after losing father Rob
to brain cancer, grasped a hugely creditable bronze medal in the 10m platform
competition. The 18 year-old had long been the cherubic face of British diving
but never had he exhibited courage such as this, sealing his medal with a
concluding back three-and-a-half of virtual perfection.
“After that last dive I felt like I could just do a dolphin kick straight out
of the water,” said Daley, whose euphoria was tempered by the memories of his
father, who had been ever-present at poolside throughout his precocious
development. “It is about time my family had some good news. Although this is a
bronze, for me it is a gold. I really wish my dad had been there to see that
performance, because we had such a long, tough journey together.”
Back at the epicentre, in the Olympic Stadium, night had long since fallen
and still the Farah fervour would not relent. “We want Mo!” the crowd cried as
they waited for his gold medal presentation.
Amid the din, TV presenter Ben Shephard astutely spotted the ultimate photo
opportunity. Beckoning Farah and Bolt to mount the rostrum once more, he and the
thousands privileged to be there watched as the pair struck a defining pose: the
lanky sprinter attempting the Mo-bot, and the slender distance man at his side
replying in kind with the famous ‘Lightning Bolt’ gesture.
Two totems of the Olympic track. Bolt might have enraptured the masses with
his records and effortless charisma, but another Saturday night special from
Farah ensured this corner of East London would remain forever Mo-town.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Mobot? Looks good on me. I might just take it.”
Usain Bolt appropriates Mo Farah’s trademark celebration after winning his third gold medal in the 4x100m relay
Usain Bolt appropriates Mo Farah’s trademark celebration after winning his third gold medal in the 4x100m relay
BRITISH MEDALLISTS ON DAY 15
GOLD
- Ed McKeever Canoeing, men’s K1 200m
- Mo Farah Athletics, men’s 5,000m,
- Luke Campbell Boxing, men’s bantamweight
BRONZE
- Liam Heath, Jon Schofield Canoeing, men’s K2 200m.
- Tom Daley Diving, men’s 10m platform
Source: Telegraph/uk
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