Britain’s Mo Farah, front, celebrates on the finish straight as he wins gold ahead of second placed Britain’s Andy Vernon
Mo Farah clinched his 5,000-10,000 meter double at the European Championships yesterday, giving his troubled season a golden finish that made him the double long distance champion at continental, world and Olympic levels all at the same time.
After proving his rude health during his 10,000 victory on Wednesday, the Briton showed off his running smarts and explosive power in the 5,000, tugging in on the bends and unleashing his unmatched kick for home that has now been unstoppable at big championships since the 2012 London Olympics.
“History is important to me,” Farah said.
Farah had been airlifted to a hospital with a stomach ailment at his U.S. training camp barely a month ago but was good enough for gold in two races in five days.
“There have been some down times, but two golds here is great,” he said.
It capped the best-ever European Championships for Britain on a five-gold afternoon. Britain finished with 12 gold medals and 23 in total, just edging France, which had nine gold and 23 overall.
On Sunday, Farah’s domination was so overpowering he had time to make his signature Mobot celebration with his hands over his head in the form of the letter M as he crossed the line. He beat Hayle Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan by more than 2 seconds.
The only athlete who could have stolen the day from Farah was Dutch double sprint champion Dafne Schippers. But she missed the handover in the 4×100 relay that could have given her three titles. Instead, it was Britain that sped to gold.
Mahiedine Mekhissi also could have had a double but won his first gold yesterday, outrunning all opposition in the 1,500 meters, three days after the Frenchman was disqualified in the steeple chase for stripping off his shirt in celebration before crossing the finish line. Mekhissi left all opponents standing with 450 meters to go with a devastating kick for home that left him enough time on the finishing straight to wave to the crowds at the Letzigrund stadium. It was all show again, but at least he kept his shirt on. “I ran with rage,” he said. “My reaction was the reaction of a champion.”
It was better for Britain in the men’s relay where 400 champion Martyn Rooney won his second gold by anchoring the team home in front of Russia and Poland. And 200 champion Adam Gemili added a second gold by anchoring the British 4×100 relay squad home.
Christina Schwanitz of Germany won the shot put ahead of Russia’s Yevgeniya Kolodko.
On the closing day with a dozen finals on the program, Italy’s Daniele Meucci won the marathon title ahead of Yared Shegumo of Poland and Aleksey Reunkov of Russia.
Poland’s Marcin Chabowski, who led for most of the race, slumped in the final stages and abandoned shortly before the finish.
The 28-year-old Meucci finished in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 8 seconds for a margin of 52 seconds over Shegumo and 1:07 over Reunkov.
Meucci already won silver and bronze over 10,000 in the last two European championships. AP
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