Now Mo wants fourth victory for fourth child
MO Farah became the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals yesterday after he was first across the line in the 10,000m – despite taking a tumble early on.
The 33-year-old immediately dedicated himself to winning a fourth for his son.
He has each of his medals engraved with one of the names of his four children – so he needs one more gold to complete the family set.
The two golds he won in the 5,000m and 10,000m in London four years ago carry the names of his twins Aisha and Amani, while yesterday morning’s medal will bear the name of his stepdaughter Rihanna, who was in Rio’s Olympic stadium to cheer him on.
Rihanna, who is from his wife Tania’s previous relationship, showed her delight, jumping up and down and then putting both hands on her head to copy Farah’s famous ‘Mobot’ pose within moments of his victory over Kenya’s Paul Tanui and Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola.
Now he aims to win the 5,000m gold for his one-year-old son Hussein. He said: ‘I would love to have another medal for my son.
‘The twins have got their names on the ones from London and I promised my daughter I would get her one here, which is probably what drove me to the line. Now I just want to see if I can go out there and win one for Hussein.’
Both Tania and Rihanna were in Rio but the twins and Hussein are being looked after at home.
Farah feared his ‘dream might be over’ when on the tenth lap of the gruelling 25-lap race he tripped and fell after colliding with his friend and training partner, American runner Galen Rupp.
But he quickly got up and signalled that he was unhurt with a thumbs-up. Farah said he was lucky to struggle back from the tumble, adding that his rivals who were leading the race would have ‘hammered it down’ if they had realised he was on the ground.
Despite African runners appearing to co-ordinate their moves against him he was well-placed to take the lead and sprint home with 100m to go. ‘At one point I thought the race was over,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t going to let it go. I got up quickly.
‘In my mind, all I was thinking about was my daughter. I had promised I was going to get a medal, so I wasn’t going to let her down.
‘I thought about my family. It made me emotional. I thought, “Get through, get through”. I believed in myself.’ Farah produced his trademark surge in the last 100m of the race, finishing in 27 minutes and 5.17 seconds – less than half a second ahead of Tanui.
Falling to the ground, he kissed the track before doing his own Mobot for his cheering fans. He said: ‘When I crossed the line I just got really emotional, because you know what goes in. You can’t imagine how hard I work for it. And in one moment it’s gone.’
Farah broke down in tears as he described how his training tears him apart from his family for six months of the year, sobbing: ‘I work hard and I spend a lot of time away from my family and everything.’
The heats for the 5,000m begin tomorrow – and he is the favourite.
If Farah wins, he will become the first man to retain two Olympic distance titles since 1976, when Finland’s Lasse Viren held on to the 5,000m and 10,000m golds he won in 1972 – known as a ‘double double’.
Guy Walters – Page 17
‘Time away from my family’