Britain's Mo Farah tonight won his second gold medal of London 2012 with a thrilling victory in the 5,000 metres on the final night of athletics action.

Seven days after claiming Britain's third gold in the space of 45 minutes on 'Super Saturday' in the 10,000m, Farah produced another brilliant performance to complete the long-distance double.

Roared on by a capacity 80,000-strong crowd, Farah 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 13 minutes and 41.66 seconds. Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya claimed bronze.

Just five men in Olympic history had previously taken the 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the same Games - Emil Zatopek of the old 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 Kenenisa Bekele, also of Ethiopia, at Beijing four years ago.

Farah's victory also meant Britain have won four track and field golds for only the third time since the Second World War, matching the haul from Tokyo in 1964 and Moscow in 1980.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.