Double glory ensures sacrifices were all worthwhile for Farah

Speaking the morning after he added the 5,000m gold to his 10,000m title, Farah felt all his hard work had finally paid off.

He said double gold was a fitting comeback from the “big disappointment” of failing to make a final in Beijing four years ago – but added he could not have done it without the deafening support of the crowd.

He said: “As an athlete you dream of becoming an Olympic champion but, for me, to become Olympic champion twice is just an unbelievable feeling.

“If it wasn’t for the crowd I don’t think I would have been up there, for sure. They make a big difference. In front of 80,000 people just cheering your name and getting louder and louder, it’s the best feeling ever. It’s just like being at a football game.”

He said he felt he was able to dictate Saturday night’s race and “knew I had it in me” to be first over the finish line.

On his remarkable progress over the last four years, Farah added: “It’s been a lot of hard work and grafting. In Beijing, for me it was really disappointing. I had to move forward and recover and get into my running again, and then last year I made the big decision to move to the US.

“That was never easy. Something needed to change.

“There is a decision in your career you have to make... I’m glad I made that decision, and it just shows you it works.

“But a lot of miles have gone into these legs, week-in, week-out, over 100 miles, sometimes I’d be hitting 120 miles, so it just shows you it’s hard work.

“There are no short-cuts, just hard work and grafting.”

Asked what his achievements in London mean to him overall, 
Farah said: “To be double Olympic champion, to be on the podium, it’s the best thing.

“There is no word to describe it because all the work, all the sacrifices, all the things you put into it, it’s just unbelievable.”

Farah had earlier dedicated his twin gold medals to his unborn twin daughters after becoming only the seventh man in history to complete the Olympic long-distance double.

Seven days after winning the 10,000m, Farah took advantage of a slow race in the 5,000m to hit the front with 700m remaining and was never headed, covering the last lap in under 53 seconds to hold off Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel to win in 13mins 41.66sec. Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya claimed bronze.

His name is now added to the illustrious group of men who have previously taken the 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the same Games – Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland in 1912, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia in 1952, Vladimir Kuts of the USSR in 1956, Finland’s Lasse Viren in 1972 and 1976, Miruts Yifter of Ethiopia in 1980 and countryman Kenenisa Bekele at Beijing four years ago.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling, the best feeling ever,” said Farah. “Those two medals are to my two girls that are coming. They’re twins so there’s one for each. They could arrive any day.”

Sebastian Coe has hailed 
Farah’s double Olympic gold as an achievement of “extraordinary magnitude”.

“What Mo did Saturday night was of such an extraordinary magnitude,” he said. “The real challenge of doing the double is not actually the physicality of going through rounds and races, it’s those three to four days between having won an Olympic title and then deciding it’s still important enough in your life to come back onto the track and do it all over again.

“It’s probably tougher mentally than physically.”

While some questioned if Farah could produce the goods for a second time following his exertions in the 10,000m and the heats of the 5,000m, Coe had little doubt he would see the Briton with another medal around his neck.

“There is a moment in a career of an athlete when they’re just not going to get beaten,” he added. “You’re very lucky if you hold that period for 18 months – John Walker had it, Steve Ovett had it, Steve Cram had it – all the great athletes have it. Mo is in that period now.”

IOC president Jacques Rogge attempted to defuse a rumbling row with Usain Bolt yesterday by describing him as “an active performance legend” and the best sprinter of all time.

Rogge said last week that Bolt had to do yet more to be regarded as ‘a legend’ – sparking an angry reaction from the sprinter, who after Saturday’s 4x100m triumph demanded the IOC leader should say what more he could do.

Rogge, who has also previously criticised Bolt’s level of showmanship on the track, has appeared to change his mind.

He told a news conference: “It is a semantic question but you would say that Usain Bolt is an active performance legend, an icon and the best sprinter of all time.”

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