10,000M
FEW THINGS enhance a runner’s reputation as much as their ability to rise from a mid-race fall to win. From grassroots events to the elite scene, athletes who recover from a trip to catch and pass their rivals are guaranteed to see their stock rise in the eyes of onlookers and fellow athletes.
Last Saturday Mo Farah did it on the biggest stage of all – the Olympic 10,000m final. For the past five years we have watched him win global gold medals galore with the same familiar strategy, but here he took a tumble before rising to battle his way back into contention.
It is Farah’s aim in Rio to emulate the Olympic ‘double double’ of Lasse Viren, the 5000m and 10,000m champion in 1972 and 1976. Until now most of Farah’s major titles have come with Vireneque tactics of hitting the front in the final kilometre, winding up the pace and refusing to yield the lead. Yet little did anyone realise the Briton would unwittingly follow in the Finn’s footsteps by hitting the track in the same dramatic style that Viren did in 1972.
Back then, at the Munich Games, Viren fell on the 12th lap after being accidentally caught by Frank Shorter before going on to set a world record of 27:38.35 ahead of Emiel Puttemans and Miruts Yifter.
The triple Olympic champion is set to focus on the Great North Run after the Rio Games and maybe attack quicker 5000m and 10,000m times next year