2017 IAAF World Championships

Mo Farah Dominates 10K To Win Fifth Consecutive Global Title

Mo Farah Dominates 10K To Win Fifth Consecutive Global Title

Five years after making history in his home country, Mo Farah returned to win his sixth world championship title of his career. The British distance phenom won the men's 10K in 26:49 at the IAAF World Championships in London.

Aug 4, 2017 by Harry Prevor .
Mo Farah Dominates 10K To Win Fifth Consecutive Global Title
Five years after making history in his home country at the 2012 Olympics, Mo Farah returned to win the fifth global 10K title of his career and his tenth overall global title. The British distance phenom won the men's 10K in 26:49 with a 55-second last lap at the IAAF World Championships in London on Friday night. The performance was just three seconds shy of Kenenisa Bekele's championship record.

Farah's path to the title was anything but easy. The Kenyans and standout Ugandan of the field, Joshua Cheptegei ran with determination to break Mo Farah from the start. They took the race out in 61 seconds through 400m. Meanwhile, Farah executed his trademark tactic of laying back during the early stages of the race, and it paid off as he was able to avoid most of the roughhousing up front while biding his time. He didn't share the lead until just before the 4K mark.

Cheptegei and Kenyans Geoffrey Kamworor, Bedan Karoki Muchiri, and Paul Tanui seemed extremely communicative throughout the race, regularly trading the lead and shifting places to keep the pace honest. After slowing down considerably from the opening few laps, the field started to get comfortable at a more consistent 4:20 1600m pace for the next few miles.

nullMuchiri made the first real break of the race just before the 5K, splitting another 61-second lap in an attempt to distance himself from Farah. It appeared to work when the move made Farah shift back from first to 15th. The field came through in 13:33 through 5K, on pace for a 27:06 finish.

By 6K, Hassan Mead had fallen off the lead pack, but the other two Americans, Leonard Korir and Shadrack Kipchirchir remained in the top group with Farah and the pace-pushers. The race was still at 27:08 pace, which narrowed the pack to 15 by the time they hit 7K.

By the time Cheptegei rolled through 8K in 21:40, the race started to speed up. The pack hit the previous 1600m in 4:17, which was the fastest split of the race at that point. With one mile to go, world leader Abadi Hadis became the first to initiate a kick. He continued to lead through 9K.

Farah began to share the lead again with two laps to go, and to the world's surprise, Tanui made a strong push at the bell lap. Would this be the move that would finally break Farah? The answer was no, as Farah was still able to close in 1:57 (800m) and 55 (400m) to take home the hard-earned win. With plenty of room on the homestretch, Farah shut it down and celebrated with 50m to go. The win was secured to the delight of the packed London Stadium.

Behind him, Mo Ahmed broke Cam Levins' Canadian national record by five seconds when he ran 27:02. All three Americans had impressive days as well, and walked away with new personal bests:


Kipchirchir's mark made him the third-fastest American of all time over 10K, just behind Galen Rupp and Chris Solinsky, and Korir is No. 6 all-time with his 27:20 performance.



Race leader splits:


1Ks Overall Split 1K Split
1000 2:39 2:39
2000 5:25 2:46
3000 8:09 2:44
4000 10:53 2:44
5000 13:33 2:40
6000 16:17 2:44
7000 19:02 2:45
8000 21:40 2:38
9000 24:20 2:40
10000 26:49 2:29
1600s Overall Split 1600 Split
1600 4:20 4:20
3200 8:41 4:21
4800 13:03 4:22
6400 17:23 4:20
8000 21:40 4:17
9600 25:54 4:14
Last 1600 Overall Split 400 Split
400 1:03 1:03
800 2:07 1:04
1200 3:09 1:02
1600 4:04 0:55

Full results:


null


Get all the hype!

Sign up for the FloTrack newsletter for instant access to: Breaking News, Results, Rankings, Archived Race Footage, Live Broadcasts and more!