Mo Farah became the first man to retain both the 5000m and 10,000m titles in the history of the IAAF World Championships with another spectacular performance in Beijing tonight.
A week after winning the 10,000m, the Great Britain star, arguably the greatest long-distance track runner of all time, had one of the toughest races of his career in a thrilling 5000m.
But he came through to triumph and said: 'It is great to make history, my hamstring has been playing up a bit and to win the double makes me so happy.
'I was so nervous, that happens, but you have to get through it. And now I cannot wait to see my family.'
It was slow, it was tactical and Farah spent the first half of it at the back. And when he needed some water to cool down, he even had time to run across all the lanes to grab a bottle before the drinks station was moved into lane three.
That was how slow it was in the early stages before the heat grew with 800m left.
Kenya’s Caleb Ndiku had taken over with Farah behind him, and just after the bell it was still the same story.
Farah was digging deep but Ndiku had the advantage, just over a metre with 100m left but then as they came around the home turn, the five-times European champion found another gear and just broke away.
He won in 13:50.38 from Ndiku (13:51.75) and Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet (13:51.86) and enjoyed every step of his lap of honour, draped in the British flag and celebrating with the crowd.
Kuchina’s glory as Vlasic is back with silver
Five months after winning gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, Russia’s Mariya Kuchina is now the world outdoor high jump champion.
And as she celebrated a brilliant glory, there was equal happiness for the woman in second - Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic.
Double world champion Vlasic, who has battled back from a series of injuries, had not made the podium since her silver in the world championships in Daegu in 2011, but she returned in style with Russia’s Olympic champion Anna Chicherova in third.
Countback decided the outcome as all three finished with a best of 2.01m, with Kuchina, the joint world-indoor champion, having a clean slate at every height of the competition until 2.03m. She went unscathed at 1.88m, 1.92m, 1.95m, 1.97m and 1.99m until the winning height and that proved good enough.
Vlasic had one failure at 1.92m, while Chicherova went over 1.97m and 2.01m at the second attempt, but it was Kuchina’s day as she triumphed with a personal best.
Poland’s Kamila Licwinko, who shared the world indoor gold with Kuchina, Spain’s double European champion Ruth Beitia and Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch, of Germany, finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively on countback after all clearing 1.99m.
Malachowski has his world title
Piotr Malachowski, who needed his final throw in discus qualifying to reach the final, made no mistake as he finally became a world champion today.
Malachowski, 32, twice a world and once an Olympic silver medallist, achieved the global title with a second round 67.40m after moving into the lead with his opening effort of 65.09m.
It was a superb competition for Europe with athletes from the continent taking the first five positions and with silver, Belgium’s Philip Milanov broke the national record with his third round throw of 66.90m.
Malachowski’s Polish team-mate Robert Urbanek won bronze with 65.18m followed by Estonia’s Gerd Kanter (64.82m) and Sweden’s Daniel Stahl (64.73m) with injured Olympic and European champion Robert Harting’s younger brother Christoph, 24, in eighth (63.94m).
Having won European gold in Barcelona 2010, Malachowski has never given up on his dream of another major crown and though Milanov came close, it was not to be at a championships to remember for Poland in the field events, with hammer throwers Pawel Fajdek and Anita Wlodarczyk landing gold earlier in the week.
Britain’s women 4x100m relay team of Asha Philip, Dina Asher-Smith, Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry missed out on bronze to Trinidad & Tobago (42.03) but still had much to be happy about as they broke the national record (42.10) as Jamaica won gold in a championship record of 41.07 with the USA second (41.68).
Arzamasova has so much power for gold
European 800m champion Maryna Arzamasova is now the world champion after showing an amazing depth of strength to hold off the challenge of Kenya’s defending champion Eunice Sum.
Sum produced the early running but with 300m left, the Belarusian made her move and at first it looked like she had gone too soon.
But Arzamasova was not giving in, she was not going to be beaten and as Sum threatened on the outside and Canada’s Melissa Bishop came through on the inside, they could not catch her.
Arzamasova found more when she needed it and even stretched away just slightly in the final 10m to win in 1:58.03 from Bishop (1:58.12) and Sum (1:58.18).
She had run the quickest time by a European this year with her 1:57.54 in the semi-finals but this race was all about having the belief that she can be the best - and that she now is with the Olympic Games just a year away.
Freimuth takes bronze in world-record decathlon
Rico Freimuth won decathlon bronze for Germany on a historic night as American Ashton Eaton broke the world record.
As the positions in the competition stayed the same from overnight and all the way through day two, Freimuth finished third with a personal best 8561 points as Eaton retained his title in sensational style with 9045 to break the record by six points with Canada’s David Warner in second (8695).
Freimuth (4406) was determined to narrow the gap on Eaton (4703) and Warner (4530) right at the start of the day and the trio were paired together in the fourth heat of the 110m hurdles which saw Freimuth third (13.91) as Warner (13.63) won from Eaton (13.69) before it was the German’s chance to show his strength.
That came in the discus where he was the only man to pass 50m, with 50.02m in the first round and then 50.17m in the third, before 4.80m saw him finish joint-11th overall in the pole vault as Belgium’s Thomas van der Plaetsen took it with a superb 5.30m.
Freimuth, the 2007 European junior bronze medallist, was doing all he could to close in on Warner and with two events left, Freimuth (7115) was edging ever closer as the Canadian was now second by only 54 points with Eaton leading (7423).
But as Estonia’s Janek Oiglane had the best javelin with 68.51m, Freimuth (60.61m) could not beat Warner (63.50m) and the gap was now 98 points with Russia’s Ilya Shkurenev (7760) 102 behind the German.
Third place was in the German’s hands in the final event, the 1500m, and though Shkurenev was fourth in their heat in 4:24.98 for 778 points, Freimuth was 13th in 4:37:05 for 699 which was enough to keep hold of bronze.