London, England – Great Britain's Mo Farah grabbed his second gold in a long distance race at the London Games, winning the men's 5,000 meters Saturday at Olympic Stadium.
Farah is the only British runner to win an Olympic title in either the 5,000 or 10,000m, and by taking gold in both races here in London he is the sixth man to pull off the distance double at the same games. Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele was the last to do it four years ago in Beijing, but he finished fourth in the 10,000 earlier in the track and field competition and did not compete in Saturday's distance event.
Farah led briefly early in the race, but made another move to the front with just under two laps remaining. He then held off a late challenge from Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel before finishing with a time of 13 minutes, 41.66 seconds. The British runner then fell to the track and did a few sit-ups in front of the elated home crowd.
Gebremeskel crossed the finish line just .32 seconds later for silver.
Kenya's Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa placed third with a time of 13:42.36, while Bernard Lagat of the United States was .63 seconds behind. Lagat won two medals in the 1,500 while competing for Kenya at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, but has never medaled for the U.S.
American Galen Rupp, silver medalist in the 10,000 at the London Games, was trying to become the first U.S. runner to medal in both 5,000 and 10,000 at same Olympics, but he finished seventh on Saturday.
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