London: British track legend Mo Farah sauntered into the 5,000 metres world final last night looking good to sign off his brilliant track championship career with a fifth successive global title double.
The 34-year-old – who has two Olympic and two world championship doubles to his credit – showed no sign of a hangover from the 10,000m victory last Friday, which saw him emerge with a badly cut calf, as he finished second in his semi-final at a rain-sodden London Stadium.
Farah may need to be on his guard as at the opposite end of the age spectrum 17-year-old Ethiopian Selemon Barega caught the eye in winning his semi-final.
Farah was content to hang out the back in the early stages but moved onto the fastest man in the world this year Muktar Edris’s shoulder with 10 laps remaining.
Up front was Spain’s Morocco-born Illias Fifa ahead of 16-year-old Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo who then took on the pace with seven laps to the tape – Farah moving up to second behind the youngster.
Relaxed
A welcome sudden injection of pace came from Tanzania’s Emmanuel Gisamoda with Farah looking relaxed in fourth alongside Hayle Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan.
However, they bunched up again and a fair few elbows came to the fore as runners tried to hold their position.
As they took the bell there were a dozen runners in contention for the five automatic places but Farah was never in danger of missing out and content to finish second.
The second semi-final saw Ethiopian tyro Barega take on the pace setting duties after a very pedestrian opening four laps swapping the lead with Ugandan Stephen Kissa.
There were casualties though as the pace slowed and they bunched up with Kenyan-born American Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo going down after being clipped by Kenya’s Cyrus Rutto, who also came to grief.
Chelimo recovered quicker regaining his place in the main pack whilst Rutto took his time but with two laps to run he too was back in contention.
However, Chelimo ran out of puff when the final sprint took place with Barega coming home first and his former compatriot now running for Bahrain Birhanu Balew was second with Rutto doing brilliantly to take third.