"It was very exciting," said Britain's double Olympic champion, who won a slow and at times treacherous race at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships  in 27min 21.7sec.

"I remembered two years ago almost the exact same thing happening.

"But this time I knew Jeilan was capable, and it was important that I had something left.

"I knew on the last lap, I could see he was there.

"At 200m again I could see him again. I was saying to myself, 'Not again, not again...I've just got to push hard, a little bit more.' "


Jeilan took silver in 27:22.23, with bronze going to longtime front-runner Paul Tanui, from Kenya, in 27:22.61.

Farah thus took the second gold medal of the day after Kenya's Edna Kiplagat had retained her marathon title in intense heat and humidity which forced a third of the field to drop out.

The race eventually turned into a duel between Kiplagat and Italy's Valerio Straneo, the longtime leader, before the champion pulled smoothly away after 40 kilometres to secure a second gold in a time of 2 hours 25min 44sec.

The 37-year-old Italian settled for a silver she had never expected in 2:25:58, becoming the oldest World Championships medallist in a running event.


Farah admitted he had been surprised by the relatively slow pace of the race.

"The reason I went to the back at the start was because I knew there were Kenyans and Ethiopians who would probably push the pace," he said.

"But it was slow, so it was a perfect race for me.

"As it was quite slow race so the important thing was to stay out of trouble.

"A couple of times I did get tripped but that's because I've got such a long stride.

"I was racing with my training partner Galen Rupp, and he was in great shape so the plan was for us to work together and try to cover every move."

Asked if this victory was the final piece of a jigsaw for him, given that he won the world 5,000m title in Daegu, he commented: "Jeilan a couple of years ago did wonderfully.

"It was a great race and you can't take that away from him.

"But ever since then it's been on my mind as something I'm missing.

"After London [2012] you want to get that feeling back again."

He added that an extra factor in his Moscow victory was the thought that all the hard work had been worth it - work which had often kept him away from his twin girls born last year.

"I am away so much, they don't recognise me," he said.

"It's really hard to go home for three or four days and you try to hug them or play with them and they step away.

"They view you as a stranger.

"My seven-year-old knows what daddy does, but they are too young to.

But Farah shied away from the invitation to align himself with previous all-time greats such as Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele.

"I don't really think about that," he said.

"I just enjoy what I do.

"I want to collect as many medals as I can.

"I want to do well for my country, for myself and my family, and people can think what they want."


Natalia Semenova's hopes of reaching the discus final at the World Championships were shattered when the Ukrainian suffered a bloodied and broken nose in a freak accident just before the qualifying round.

The European Championship bronze medallist was accidentally hit in the face by Polish athlete Zaneta Glanc who had mimed a throw while holding the discus as she sat in the athletes area next to the discus circle.

"I was next to her," said Croatia's Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic.

"The Polish athlete was warming up and hit her in the face.

"Her nose is broken.

"When I saw it, I ran over to help her.

"I took my towel to her and some water."

Semenova had to be patched up by officials under the blazing morning sun in the competition area.

The 31-year-old, sporting a dressing on the bridge of her nose to cover the cuts and bruises, continued with qualifying but managed only one legal throw of 55.79 metres, well down on her season's best of 61.41m, to finish bottom of the group.

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