One Mo victory will seal his legacy

LONDON — He might have been battered and bruised, but Mo Farah took it all in his long, loping stride as he negotiated Wednesday’s rain-soaked minefield of the 5,000m heats at the world championships to set up one final assault on track gold.

Even with three stitches in his spiked left leg and a badly bruised left knee, the legacy of his turbulent 10,000m triumph last Friday, Britain’s endurance maestro easily qualified for Saturday’s final.

Having finished runner-up in his heat in wretched conditions in a modest 13min and 30.18sec, the 34-year-old now has one race to put the exclamation mark on his extraordinary track career before concentrating on marathon.

In Saturday’s final, he will be seeking an incredible fifth consecutive 5,000m/10,000m double at a global championships.

“The rounds are the hardest part,” Farah said after finishing behind 20-year-old Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha (13:30.07) in the first heat, easing into one of the five automatic qualifying positions.

“It was cold and miserable out there, but I got the job done. The 10,000m did take a lot out of me but I am OK now. The knee is fine, but my body is a bit tired. Still, anything is possible.

“It isn’t easy to win the double, we saw that with Usain Bolt. It would’ve been nice to see him win, I was looking forward to that, but it didn’t happen.

“Nobody is going to give it to you, no matter who you are. It would be pretty amazing and something historic if I could do the double.

“I know that I can’t take anything for granted. They are coming for me and they are hungry.”

Indeed, while Farah will be an overwhelming favorite to secure a seventh world championship gold, the heats again demonstrated the pitfalls that lie ahead with a new youthful brigade of Africans snapping at his heels.

The heats suggested that Farah’s biggest challenge will come from the three young Ethiopians Barega, Muktar Edris, the fastest man in the world this year, and Kejelcha.