Mo Farah and Chris Thopmson celebrate after scripting a historic 1-2 finish for Great Britain in the men's 10000m final on the first day of the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona on Tuesday.

Mo Farah came to the end of a long, hard road when he crossed the line at the end of the men’s 10000m final on Tuesday night, one far longer than the 25 laps of the bright blue track he’d just completed in a little under 28 and a half minutes.

As he spread his arms wide, clenched his fists and grinned in wide-eyed delight it was as much in redemption as triumph for Farah had finally banished the bad memories he’d harboured for four years.

Although just 23 in 2006, Farah already carried a weighty burden as Britain’s big hope for a return to its long-distant days of long distance running glory. But in Göteborg, the Somali-born runner lost a tense sprint for the 5000m title with Spain’s Jesus Espana, letting the gold slip from his grasp by just nine hundredths of a second.

It was a battle he should have won, at least according to one athletes’ manager who commented later that year that Farah simply didn’t have “the bottle”.

That loss has played on Farah’s mind ever since, through years in which he’s become the European cross country champion, the European indoor 3000m champion, broken British records on the track and road, fathered a child and got married; years, also, when he’s been casticated by some of Britain’s former distance running greats for not making the final of the Olympic 5000m in Beijing.

So it was relief as well as huge satisfaction that came pouring out of the 27-year-old when he finally stopped for breath after leaving Spanish hearts in pieces in Barcelona’s balmy Olympic Stadium, becoming the first Briton ever to win the European 10,000m title.

“It’s never been done before and I can’t quite believe I’ve done it now,” he said. “I was second four years ago and I have all those memories still in my head because I was beaten by less than half a second then. To take that and live with it for so long and now to do what I’ve done, it wasn’t easy.

“I’ve had four years of waiting around thinking, ‘Wait till the next Europeans, the next Europeans, the next Europeans.’ Each year I’ve been thinking about it and finally to have the gold means so much to me.”

It’s been a long wait for Britain too – the last British champion in a European men’s 5000 or 10000m was Jack Buckner who won gold at 5000m back in 1986. But neither Buckner, nor any British man before or since had triumphed in the longer race (although, of course, Paula Radcliffe won the women’s in 2002).

“There have been some amazing runners,” said Farah. “Think of Brendan Foster, Dave Bedford, Ian Stewart, Jack Buckner, and all those others. They were legends but none of them have done it.

“It all depends on the championship, of course. You’ve got to get it right on the day and I got it right today. It means a lot to me to win for Britain. It’s been a lot of hard work and dedication. Sometimes things don’t go quite right but you put that behind you and keep going.”

Yet while Farah was evoking names from the past to try and put his achievement in context, his friend, opponent and team-mate Chris Thompson had no hesitation in calling his sometime training partner “the best British distance runner we’ve ever had”.

“To finish second behind this guy is an absolute honour,” said Thompson, who snatched the silver medal with a last lap even quicker than Farah’s that took him past Spain’s fading Ayad Lamdassem and across the line millimetres ahead of Italy’s Daniele Meucci.

The British one-two was the first by any nation in this event since Italy swept the medals in 1986. For Farah it was utterly fitting for he and Thompson go “way back”, as he put it, back to junior races, years before 2003 when Thompson beat Farah to the European under 23 title.

“I’m chuffed for Chris because to finish first and second is great,” said Farah. “We go way back, so it means such a lot to me and I hope we’ve both made Britain proud.”

The two have been chasing each other around tracks, and up and down roads for years, even at one race agreeing to hold hands across the line so they could share the prize money. “It was his idea,” said Thompson. “Then with 10 metres to go he ran off, won it, and kept the winner’s cheque. It was £100 for first and £75 for second.

“I’m still waiting for my £12.50,” he joked.

Clearly Farah’s cheek didn’t break the friendship for the pair trained together for these championships in Font Romeau, although contrary to what some may have thought, they didn’t cook up a tactical plan to beat the Spaniards.

“I couldn’t do that to Mo,” said Thompson. “He was the favourite and had all the pressure. We didn’t talk about it.”

Yet Farah obviously had his team-mate in mind during the race for at one point he turned and called on Thompson to close the gap he’d opened with Lamdassem, worried his friend may be letting a medal chance slide out of reach. It was just what Thompson needed to summon a final effort.

“I saw him gesturing,” said Thompson. “So I just fixed my eyes on him. It was like he was saying, ‘Come on, we can still get first and second here.’

“When it came to the last 800 I just thought I cannot come this far, this long a journey, this much effort down the years, and not get a medal at this point. I didn’t know what colour it was going to be, but that was going to depend on how much I got my balls out – and they were hanging low today.”

For Farah, it was the end of a long journey, not just from Göteborg but from his birth place in Somalia, the country he fled with his parents, aged 10, to arrive in west London. On the playground of his school, where he struggled to speak English, Farah’s talent was spotted by a physical education teacher who persuaded him to join the local athletics club.

Farah acknowledges the sacrifices his parents made, and there’ve been plenty more along the way, not least by his new wife and child whom he sent home after his honeymoon in Zanzibar in April while he headed off to the Kenyan hills for a bit of extra altitude training. “It’s not been easy,” he said. “You have to be selfish sometimes but you have to sacrifice a lot too.”

And, of course, winning the 10000m is not the end of the road, just a peak or a corner, perhaps, for the British pair will be back on the Barcelona track for the 5000m, looking to dash Spanish hopes once again and bury those bad Göteborg memories even deeper.