• Farah is first Briton to win 5,000m gold
• Triple-jump silver completes seven-medal haul
Andy Bull in Daegu
guardian.co.uk,
Mo Farah celebrates becoming the first British athlete to win the 5,000m at a world championships or Olympic Games. Photograph: David J. Phillip/AP
On the day that Great Britain gained a new world champion, it lost an old one. A week after Mo Farah finished second in the 10,000 metres final, he became the first British runner to win a gold medal in the 5,000m at the world championships or the Olympics. Two minutes after Farah crossed the finish line, Phillips Idowu triple-jumped to 17.70m. It was his best effort this season and it looked likely to make him the first British athlete to defend a world title. But then Christian Taylor, a 21-year-old American in his first season out of college, jumped an astonishing 17.96m. It put Taylor fifth on the all-time rankings and relegated Idowu to the silver medal, though he responded with another season's best, of 17.77m.
For Farah the gold medal is the reward for years of relentless hard work. Few British athletes have sacrificed more to win, and he was elated with what he had achieved. "This is something you train for every day, two times a day, three times a day, it is what you want to do as an athlete – win. It's an amazing feeling," he said.
As with the 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene, Farah's victory means that in the next 11 months he will become one of the most in-demand sportsmen in the country. "A lot of people are talking about London [2012]," said Farah. "It's great that the Olympics are on our doorstep, but at the same time we're guaranteed nothing, as you saw in the 10km." He confessed he was happy that he had gone to live and train in Eugene, Oregon, because out there "nobody knows anything about it", so he can shelter from the hype and hoopla.
Farah's winning time of 13 minutes 23.36 seconds was not quick, but as he said: "Championship racing is never about speed." He ran a superb tactical race. He was forced to front-run for stretches because the pace was so slow, and had to contend with a team of three Ethiopians and another of three Kenyans. On his shoulder the whole way was the great Bernard Lagat, running for the US, whose silver was his fifth world championship medal.
Farah and Idowu's medals meant that the British team met their target of seven in the championships at almost the last moment. In fact the head coach, Charles van Commenee, was quick to point out that the team had surpassed the tally he wanted, because they won two gold medals when he would have settled for one. Van Commenee said that it had been "one of the very best performances we've ever had in the history of British athletics", though it was still a way behind the 10 medals – including three golds – that the team won in the 1993 world championships.
"It is mission achieved," said Van Commenee, "and this puts us in a great position for next year, where we want to win eight. So it's my job to find another from somewhere." This may prove a little harder. Great Britain may have won seven medals here, but they fell well short of the Dutchman's aim of having 15 or 16 athletes who were close to the top three in their event. Outside of the six who won gold, silver and bronze, only three British individual athletes finished in the top eight, along with the two 4x400m relay teams.
"A good number of athletes in the group who should be close to the medals have underperformed," said Van Commenee. "That's disappointing. At the same time I've always said at the end of this championship we would not have the finished product. I've always said we need three and a half years not two and a half."
Van Commenee has a fierce reputation, and his words carried some ominous implications for those who had underperformed. "Now I know what to do. We had a few here who were not tough enough. In some cases it's minor changes. Others need more of a shake‑up." He was particularly severe after watching both 4x100m squads fail, the men dropping the baton in the final and the women finishing fifth in their heat. "I'm disappointed, especially in the jumps and both the men's relays. The 4x4 was appalling, with no real effort. I find that unforgivable really. Also, we expected at least one athlete in the women's 800m final."
The failings of others should not detract from the excellence of Farah and Idowu, who was relatively calm after his defeat. He compared these championships to "a bypass" he was going through on the way to his main goal, the 2012 Olympics. For some of his team-mates they have been a road-hump, while others, like Farah and Greene, now find themselves in the fast lane.
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