Saturday 22 August 2015 16:33, UK
Mo Farah put a summer of speculation behind him to make it half a dozen global titles as he again proved unbeatable over 10,000m at the World Championships in Beijing.
The Briton was in dominant form on Saturday to cruise home and secure Britain's first gold in China.
Farah was ruthlessly focused amid all the off-track distractions as he burst away from the twin Kenyan challenge of Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor - who almost tripped him at the start of the final lap - and Paul Tanui down the home straight.
The 32-year-old has endured a tumultuous year, caught up in the doping allegations surrounding his coach Alberto Salazar, but has not lost his aura of invincibility on it as he came home in 27 minutes 01.13 seconds.
Farah answered his critics in perfect style inside the Bird's Nest Stadium and he is not finished yet - he goes in the 5,000m in a week's time.
"The last lap, that was close," said Farah, who took on water early in the race due to the hot and humid conditions.
"At one point, I honestly thought I was gone as I stumbled and I was thinking, 'Not 24 laps into it, the last lap'.
"I was trying to go round and the Kenyan guy Geoffrey caught my leg. So I almost stumbled and managed to stay on my feet, go round to the front and make sure I had something left at the end. It was close, it wasn't easy."
Asked if it was the hardest of his wins, he said: "Yeah, for sure. I think the Olympics were pretty tough because of the pressure, being at home, I felt that a lot.
"But at the same time it was never that quick, so it always came down to the last bit, but tonight it was hard."
And he says the win was the ideal way to answer his critics.
"Definitely relief," said Farah when questioned on his emotions given the year he has had.
"It's for everyone that supported me and believed in me. I genuinely enjoy running and love what I do. It's great to win here tonight and to be able to back it up year after year is pretty incredible.
"It means a lot because there's sometimes certain things that happen out of your control. You can only control what you do and I am controlling what I am doing and winning races.
"I'm 32 now and it's nice to still be winning races at that age and hopefully I still have a couple of years hopefully in terms of track and then we'll see what I can do on the roads."
