Farah dispels Daegu blues

Great Britain's Mo Farah performs his trademark 'Mobot' pose after winning the men's 10,000 metres gold in the IAAF World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Briton Mo Farah continued his impressive track form by claiming a hard-fought victory in the world 10,000m on Saturday.
Farah, who is attempting to replicate the double 5,000-10,000m gold he claimed at last year's London Olympics, had a slow race pace, American training partner Galen Rupp and his own definitive race-end kick to thank for his victory.
There was an all-too-familiar finish to the 25-lap race when Ethiopia's defending world champion Ibrahim Jeilan tried to edge past Farah on the final bend.
Two years ago in the Daegu worlds, Farah wilted into second behind the sprint-clever Ethiopian, but a season dedicated to honing his speed this time paid dividends.
"It was the perfect race for me," the Somali-born Farah said. "It was quite slow, and the important thing was to stay out of trouble."
With Jeilan and his three teammates plus a strong Kenyan line-up, Farah said he and Rupp, who both train in Oregon, Portland, with Alberto Salazar, had tried "to work together and to cover every move".
"Two years ago, almost exactly the same thing happened (around the final bend). It was important I had something left on the final lap."
Jeilan took silver and Kenyan Paul Tanui bronze, Rupp just missing out on the podium in fourth.
The second gold on offer on the opening day of competition went to Tanui's teammate Edna Kiplagat, who became the first woman to retain the world marathon title.
The 33-year-old, who could only finish 20th in the London Olympics last year, timed 2hr 25min 44sec to take gold ahead of long-time leader Valeria Straneo of Italy (2:25.58) while Japan's Kayoko Fukushi took bronze (2:27.45).
"I'm delighted I was able to defend my title successfully. I got confident I was going to win at the 40km mark when I upped my pace," Kiplagat said.