Rio Olympic : Britain’s Mo Farah warned he aims to keep winning after becoming the first man in 40 years to retain the two Olympic distance crowns.
“It never gets old,” beamed the 33-year-old after capturing his second successive 5,000m title on Saturday, winning the Rio final in 13min 3.30sec to emulate Finland’s Lasse Viren, who did the double at the 1972 and 1976 Games. “Mentally I had to be on the top of my game. The guys were out there to get me. I had to be alert.
“It shows I didn’t just fluke it in London,” added Farah, Britain’s most successful Olympic track and field athlete of all time.
“To do it again is incredible. I can’t believe I did it, it means so much to me.” Farah’s medal was Britain 27th gold of the Rio Games and their 65th medal, matching their haul in London four years ago.
“We’ve achieved a lot as a nation,” said the Somali-born superstar, whose heroics in 2012 won the hearts of a nation. “To be able to carry on from 2012 four years later, the legacy has changed since 2012.
“More people are doing sport, we’re winning more. I’m proud to represent my country. We’re going to finish second in the medal table, who would have thought that?” Farah, who fought back from a stumble to win the 10,000m last week, said his 5,000m victory had been the most satisfying of the four golds.
“I dreamed of becoming Olympic champion once,” said Farah, who has already achieved the world double-double, at the 2013 and 2015 championships in Moscow and Beijing.
“I was young and I watched Haile (Gebrselassie) and Paul Tergat in Sydney and then I did it in London, that was incredible — to do it again four years later there are no words to describe it.”
Kenyan-born American Paul Chelimo took silver after initially being disqualified, while Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrehiwet claimed bronze in 13:04.35.
