Great Britain's Mo Farah repeats as Olympic 10,000-meter champion in Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO — Great Britain’s Mo Farah won the men’s 10,000 meters in 27:05.17 to defend his Olympic gold medal from the 2012 London Games.
Paul Tanui of Kenya took silver in 27:05.64 and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia earned bronze in 27:06.26.
Farah continued his global dominance with his second straight Olympic 10,000 meter victory despite tripping and falling early into the race. The 33-year-old unleashed his signature kick with about 1,000 meters to go, but the Kenyan challengers hung with him until 200 meters remained in the race—when Farah left them in the dust. Later this week, Farah will race in the 5,000 meters.
Four years ago, Farah took gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters before a home crowd in London and in the years since, he has won the 2013 and ’15 world championship titles at those same distances. His resume now includes three Olympic gold medals, five world championship titles and one world championship silver.
Farah joins Ethiopians Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele as well as Lasse Virén of Finland and Emil Zátopek of Czechoslovakia as men who have won back-to-back 10,000m gold medals.
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Farah’s training partner Galen Rupp took silver at the 2012 Olympics, but finished in 27:08.92 for fifth place as the top American. Rupp, who will also run the Olympic marathon on Aug. 21, has not medaled at a major global championship since his runner-up finish in London. He won the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February with a time of 2:11:12 for his 26.2-mile debut.
Last summer, Rupp was mentioned in a joint BBC and ProPublica report alleging that Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar pushed the boundaries on doping rules to gain a competitive advantage by encouraging the use of prescription medication and therapeutic use exemptions. Rupp has been coached by Salazar since he was a teenager and has never tested positive for any performance enhancing drugs. Salazar remains under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Salazar and Rupp have denied all allegations.
Farah has been training under Salazar since 2011 but was not implicated in the report.
