Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 10,000 metres

Men's 10,000 metres at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Men's 10,000m winner Mo Farah
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	13 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	34 from 16 nations
Winning time	27:05.17
Medalists
Mo Farah  Great Britain Paul Tanui  Kenya Tamirat Tola  Ethiopia

The men's 10,000 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 13 August at the Olympic Stadium.^[1] In a tactical yet comparatively quick race, Great Britain's Mo Farah defended his Olympic title in 27:05.17 minutes, becoming the sixth man to win the Olympic 10,000 metres title twice. Reaching their first Olympic podium, Kenya's Paul Tanui was the silver medallist and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took the bronze. Farah's winning margin was 0.47 seconds.

The medals were presented by Lydia Nsekera, IOC member, Burundi and Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, Vice President of the IAAF.

Summary

Pre-Olympics

Mo Farah had not been beaten in a major track championship since the 2011 World Championships (by Ibrahim Jeilan). The defending 2012 Olympic champion, Farah's time of 26:53.71 minutes was the second fastest that year. The year's rankings were topped by Yigrem Demelash of Ethiopia and the country's two other team members (Tamirat Tola and Abadi Hadis) placed in the world's top five, though none had senior international track experience. The Kenyan contingent presented the more experienced challengers to Farah. Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor and Paul Tanui were medallists behind Farah at the 2015 World Championships. Kamworor and the third Kenyan Bedan Karoki Muchiri had beaten Farah at the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships five months earlier. American Galen Rupp – Farah's training partner and 2012 Olympic runner-up – was also a strong entrant.^[2][3]

Final

From the two alley waterfall start, Tanui went to the front of the pack, surrounded by his Kenyan teammates. Farah went to the back, jogging along behind the pack in dead last place and even waved to his family in the crowd.^[4] Peru's Luis Ostos got three laps in the spotlight before filtering back through the field.^[5] For the first quarter of the race, Farah stayed in last, content to let the Kenyans and three Ethiopians exchange the lead, though he was tracked by Kenya's Muchiri. On the seventh lap, Farah moved up to mark the leaders and increase the pace, his training partner Galen Rupp moving in behind him. Suddenly Farah's back kick connected with Rupp's right knee and Farah fell to the ground among the pack of runners.^[6]

The pack behind him scattered and Farah popped up quickly, his shoulder showing the scrapes of his collision with the ground. After this point the increased pace fractured the pack Farah returned to his marking position, usually fourth place behind the Kenyans with occasional surges by Ethiopians Tamirat Tola and Yigrem Demelash. Around 7000 metres and eight laps remaining, Kipsang and Karoki took their last turns at the front, but began to fade off the pace while Tamirat Tola and Yigrem Demelash took the point as the pace quickened. Breaking away from the remaining pack, the two Ethiopians, Tanui, Farah, Rupp and Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei continued in close order. With four laps to go, Farah took the lead, but instead of trying to break away, he simply defended the point.^[5][7]

With a lap to go, Farah had the lead, with Tanui aggressively trying to pass and the Ethiopians and Rupp still in pursuit. Coming up on a lapped runner, Tanui didn't concede space in order to pin Farah against the curb and into the back of the slower runner, the two exchanged elbows as Farah made his right of way. Tanui accelerated and took the lead before the back stretch. Farah followed Tanui as Rupp fell off the pace. Through the final turn, Tanui had the edge. Coming off the turn, Farah attacked with a gear Tanui's awkward running form could not match, building a half a second margin of victory down the final 100 metres and crossing the line with his Mobot celebration. The gap already established, Tamirat Tola passed Rupp and ran in to the bronze medal. Yigrem Demelash took fourth place after a late rush at his teammate, but missed catching him by one hundredth of a second.^[8][5][7][9]

Farah's gold medal gave him the shared distinction of being the most successful Olympian in the event and fifth Olympian to defend their title in the 10,000 m consecutively or following a lapse, preceded by Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele. Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zátopek and Lasse Viren each have won the Olympic 10,000 twice (Nurmi, non-consecutively).^[10] Zane Robertson set a New Zealand national record.^[5]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows:

World record	Kenenisa Bekele (ETH)	26:17.53	Brussels, Belgium	26 August 2005
Olympic record	Kenenisa Bekele (ETH)	27:01.17	Beijing, China	17 August 2008
World Leading	Yigrem Demelash (ETH)	26:51.11	Hengelo, Netherlands	29 June 2016

Area
	Time (s)	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	26:17.53 WR	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia
Asia (records)	26:38.76	Abdullah Ahmad Hassan	Qatar
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	26:44.36	Galen Rupp	United States
Europe (records)	26:46.57	Mo Farah	Great Britain
Oceania (records)	27:23.80	Stewart McSweyn	Australia
South America (records)	27:28.12	Marilson dos Santos	Brazil

The following national record was established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Time	Notes
New Zealand	Zane Robertson (NZL)	Final	27:33.67

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 13 August 2016	21:27	Finals

Results

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Mo Farah	Great Britain	27:05.17
	Paul Tanui	Kenya	27:05.64	SB
	Tamirat Tola	Ethiopia	27:06.26
4	Yigrem Demelash	Ethiopia	27:06.27
5	Galen Rupp	United States	27:08.92	SB
6	Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei	Uganda	27:10.06	PB
7	Bedan Karoki Muchiri	Kenya	27:22.93
8	Zersenay Tadese	Eritrea	27:23.86
9	Nguse Tesfaldet	Eritrea	27:30.79	SB
10	Abraham Cheroben	Bahrain	27:31.86	PB
11	Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor	Kenya	27:31.94
12	Zane Robertson	New Zealand	27:33.67	NR
13	Polat Kemboi Arıkan	Turkey	27:35.50	PB
14	Leonard Korir	United States	27:35.65	SB
15	Abadi Hadis	Ethiopia	27:36.34
16	David McNeill	Australia	27:51.71
17	Suguru Osako	Japan	27:51.94
18	Stephen Mokoka	South Africa	27:54.57
19	Shadrack Kipchirchir	United States	27:58.32	SB
20	Bashir Abdi	Belgium	28:01.49
21	Luis Ostos	Peru	28:02.03
22	Moses Kurong	Uganda	28:03.38
23	Timothy Toroitich	Uganda	28:04.84	SB
24	Goitom Kifle	Eritrea	28:15.99
25	Andy Vernon	Great Britain	28:19.36	SB
26	El Hassan El-Abbassi	Bahrain	28:20.17
27	Olivier Irabaruta	Burundi	28:32.75
28	Ben St Lawrence	Australia	28:46.32
29	Yuta Shitara	Japan	28:55.23
30	Kota Murayama	Japan	29:02.51
31	Ross Millington	Great Britain	29:14.95
32	Mohammed Ahmed	Canada	29:32.84
–	Hassan Chani	Bahrain	DNF
–	Ali Kaya	Turkey	DNF

References

1. "Men's 10000m". Rio 2016 Organisation. Retrieved 3 August 2016.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
2. Morse, Parker (2016-08-09). Preview: men's 10,000m – Rio 2016 Olympic Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
3. senior outdoor 2016 10,000 Metres men. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
4. Bull, Andy (2016-08-14). He gets knocked down ... but Mo Farah gets back up again to win 10,000m gold . The Guardian. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
5. 10,000 Metres men The XXXI Olympic Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
6. Jorgic, Drazen (2016-08-13). Athletics: Farah roars to another 10,000m title. Reuters. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
7. Morse, Parker (2016-08-14). Report: men's 10,000m final – Rio 2016 Olympic Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
8. Men's 10,000 metres Final Results Archived 20 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Rio2016. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
9. "Rio Olympics 2016: Mo Farah makes history by winning 10,000m gold". BBC Sport. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
10. Arcoleo, Laura (2016-08-14). Ten things we learned on day two – Rio 2016 Olympic Games . IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.