Briton Mo Farah added the world distance double to the one he achieved at the London Olympics when he bravely held off the Ethiopian and Kenyan challenge in belli-gerent style to win the 5,000 metres yesterday.
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also completed a remarkable double as she added the 200 metres gold to the 100 she won earlier in the week.
Farah needed all of his famed final lap speed to come home in 13:26.98, ahead of Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet (13:27.26) and Kenyan Isiah Kiplangat Koech (13:27.26), six days after winning the 10,000 metres in Moscow.
Farah, defending his title from Daegu, becomes the only man apart from the peerless Kenenisa Bekele to hold the Olympic and World Championship distance double simultaneously.
“I never thought in my career I would achieve something like this. This was very tough – it was all left to the last two laps. I had a lot of pressure but at the same time I enjoy it,” Farah told BBC radio.
“This is something I work so hard for. I was thinking about my kids, how long I spend away from them. It’s very difficult because they’re growing so fast and I haven’t been around for the last four or five months.
“It was hard this year, harder than last year.”
In a final of muddling and erratic pace, the trio of Ethiopians and Kenyans did their best to disrupt the Briton with team tactics but Farah, towards the back early on, went to the front with three laps to go.
With his principal rivals for gold, all with fresher legs after not running in the 10,000, queueing up to pass at the bell, Farah gritted his teeth, pumped his arms faster and refused to yield.
Koech appeared the main danger around the final bend but did not have the legs to get past as Farah held him at bay all the way to the line and Gebrhiwet’s late burst snatched silver by one thousandth of a second.
Pryce’s eagerly-awaited showdown with great rival Allyson Felix, however, failed to materialise as the American sprinter, seeking a record ninth World Cham-pionship gold, pulled up with a hamstring injury early in the race and fell to the floor in tears.
Fraser-Pryce ran a brilliant bend and was always in command, coming home in 22.17 seconds.
Murielle Ahoure, of the Ivory Coast, also second in the 100 metres, pipped Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare by sixth thousandths of a second for silver.
Fraser-Pryce won the 100 metres gold medal at last year’s Olympics and took silver in the 200 behind Felix.
World 400 metres champion LaShawn Merritt anchored an emphatic American men’s 4x400 metres relay triumph in the late event, a year after they were stunned in the Olympic final by the Bahamas.
The US, who have won the title at every World Championships since 2005, had the race sewn up from David Verburg’s opening leg, with Tony McQuay and Arman Hall extending the advantage to allow Merritt a comfortable last lap.
A thrilling duel for second place materialised with Jamaica just pipping Russia much to the disappointment of a vociferous crowd roaring home Vladimir Krasnov.
In field events, Germany’s David Storl retained his shot title in controversial circumstances when his winning throw, originally ruled a foul, was allowed to stand after judges consulted a photographer’s camera.
Storl was trailing favourite Ryan Whiting when he launched an obviously big effort in the fourth round, only for it to be ruled a foul for his foot edging over the rim of the circle.
A long discussion with the judges followed, before a measurement was allowed and it proved well worth the trouble for Storl as his season’s best 21.73 metre effort was enough for gold.
American Whiting could not improve on his opening round 21.57 and had to settle for silver ahead of Canada’s Dylan Armstrong who took bronze with 21.34.
Mo Farah winning the 5,000m race in Moscow, yesterday.