Peerless Farah leads GB gold rush at Europeans
DOUBLE Olympic champion Mo Farah savoured a return to winning ways after his second gold helped Great Britain to a record tally and top spot in the medal table on a landmark final day of the European Championships.
Farah added the 5,000m title to his success in the 10,000m last week as the 31-year-old became the most successful athlete in European Championship history, with five gold medals.
Greg Rutherford won the long jump, while Britain took gold in three relays – the men’s 4 x 100m, the women’s 4 x 100m and the men’s 4 x 400m – to overtake France in the final medal table in Zurich.
Farah’s triumph means he is the reigning European, world and Olympic champions in both 5,000m and 10,000m and was all the more remarkable after a difficult few months for the Somalia-born runner.
A mystery abdominal illness which saw him hospitalised and suffer a heart scare disrupted his training, derailing his efforts to compete at the Commonwealth Games last month.
But despite arriving in Switzerland ring-rusty, Farah proved the class act in the 10,000m and again yesterday over 5,000m, as fellow Briton Andy Vernon took bronze.
“There have been some down times this year but I’ve got over it,” said Farah. “Training has gone well in the last couple of weeks and that gave me confidence. History is important to me and it feels great to make my country proud.”
Olympic champion Rutherford, who also won Commonwealth gold in Glasgow, dominated the long jump and won with his fourth leap, an effort of 8.29m.
Martyn Rooney led home a men’s 4 x 400m relay team that also included Conrad Williams, Michael Bingham and Matt Hudson-Smith, and the meet concluded with victory in both sprint relays.
Richard Kilty, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Ellington and Adam Gemili won the men’s gold, before Asha Philip, Ashleigh Nelson, Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry repeated the feat in the women’s event.
The women’s 4 x 400m team of Eilidh Child, Kelly Massey, Shana Cox and Margaret Adoye won bronze, as did Chris O’Hare, who became the first British man to win a European medal in the 1,500m since 1986.