Barcelona round-up: Farrah in distance double
Saturday, 31 July 2010Britain's Mo Farah completed an historic long-distance double at the European Championships in Barcelona on Saturday.
Farah, who won the 10,000m title on the opening night of competition, added the 5,000m to become the first athlete to do so since Italy's Salvatore Antibo in 1990.
The Somalia-born 27-year-old took up the running with three laps to go and powered away from the field to win by almost two seconds from Spain's Jesus Espana, the man who denied him the title by just 0.09secs four years ago.
'It's hard to put it into words,' Farah said. 'It wasn't easy, I had to work hard for it. I can't believe I am a double champion.'
Elsewhere, France's Renaud Lavillenie won the pole vault as expected, soaring over 5.85m with his first attempt to beat Maksym Mazuryk of Ukraine into second.
Ukraine's Olha Saladuha won the women's triple jump title with a best of 14.81m, while France's Myriam Soumare was a surprise winner of the women's 200m from lane eight in 22.32 seconds.
Poland's Marcin Lewandowski won the 800m title by just 0.10s from Britain's Michael Rimmer, but there were further golds for Britain in the heptathlon and 400m hurdles.
Jessica Ennis added the European title to the world crown she won in Barcelona last year, beating Ukraine's 2008 Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska by just 45 points.
And Dai Greene led a Welsh one-two in the 400m hurdles ahead of training partner Rhys Williams.
Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus won the men's shot with 21.01m, while Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen took javelin gold with 88.37m.
