Mo's golden glow

Unlike the 10k Mo Farah did everything right that gradual build up was the correct stategy he used what went "wrong" in the 10k to win him the race. Like Steve Cram I think that Lagat should have been closer to Mo, at the finish he did leave himself too much to do. I actually thought that the 5k was better field then the 10k and I was not at all sure he could do it.
I think that Mo Farah is a perfect example of a sportsman, Bernard Lagat as well. Great sportsmanship. Next year is a new year and in Olympic year and the competition will be tougher then ever.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I agree with Steve Cram

"I think Lagat trusts his kick a little too much these days. He's been beaten this season, but maybe his racing brain is yet to adjust to what his body is now capable of doing."

The race was very similar to a Diamond League race I saw earlier this year (don't remember where), Lagat left himself too much to do and was a very similar distance behind Farah, I expected him to learn from his mistake then but he didn't

It will be very interesting to see how Bekele returns next year, when he has a lot more training and racing done

also will be interesting to see how the previously unheard of Ibrahim Jeilan does, will he start competing at Diamond League meetings? and will he race the 5000m in 2012 ?

I wonder if Mo feels tempted to go up the distances to the marathon?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Go Mo!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

5) He's been here since he was 10! Hardly came here 'ready made'.

Wow! Posts 2, 5 and 7 are essentially say that Mo isn't British. The guy's been here since he was 8 and his Dad was born and raised here too I think. At least try to get your facts right if you're going to slate an athlete.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

What a run, what a difference a few days make. I to didn't think he had done enough with 200m's to go and actually turned to my wife and said "he's not going to do it!" which got me sneared at before a a rousing "Go on Mo!!" came from across the room. I actually had a tear in my eye as Mo crossed the line. Top fella, great athlete and now a British Athletic Legend.

I share concerns about athletes changing nationality but Mo Farah arrived as an 8 year old refugee from Somalia 20 years ago so I hardly think this applies to him.

Linford Christie was only a year younger than Farah when he moved to the UK from Jamaica - was he an 'imported talent' too?

I'm absolutely amazed at the horrifically bigoted remarks I'm reading above, namely from Nos. 2, 5 and 7. Like it or lump it, Britain is now a society with people from a multitude of racial and religious backgrounds. Deal with that fact first of all.

Farah came to the country when he was EIGHT, barely speaking a word of English. To become an eloquent world champion from BRITAIN is to be applauded, not criticised in any way.

I'm a Briton of Asian heritage, but one thing is for sure. I'm proud of and love my country. I am British. Now celebrate Farah's achievements and the fact he chose to run (and win) for GB and stop behaving like a bunch of bitter bigots.

Norman Conquest????

Where do you get your knowledge from? The guy came over as an 8 year old from a country in Civil War, so did we send our chief Athletics Scout out there and though ''mmmm there's a ready made athlete for 2012!!''

The guy is totally a product of the British system and for me a hero. Roll on 2012

To the racists who say Mo isn't British. He has lived here since he was 8. His dad was born in England. He is a product of the British athletics system and has represented his country for over a decade and won his first English Schools Cross Country over 14 years ago. Unlike you, he makes me proud to be British and I am delighted along with British distance runners everywhere I am delighted he won today.

As far as I am aware Mo came to the UK when he was young and so is not a 'ready made import'.

He has done fantastically well and is a brilliant example to youngsters. We should be very proud of him. Well done Mo!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Mo Farah is as much English as Lennox Lewis is Canadian.

On another note, why the hell is Dwain Chambers not running in the relay along with Mark Lewis Francis? These current jokers were amateur. I hate the politics in UK Athletics. The only losers are UK athletes and UK fans. Justin Gatlin ran the second leg for USA and he had served a drugs ban. Gatlin will also be performing at the Olympics. Does America care about setting a moral high ground? Of course not, as long as the rules are followed, they want the best athletes to compete.

In the UK we have this stupid moral high ground, and we think we are setting an example to the world, when in reality the world dont care and we are just punishing our own, above and beyond the international rules, it makes no sense, and is just done to please the fragile egos of the idiots that run UK athletics.

There is no real reason why Chambers should not be in the 4x100m or even in the Olympics next year. He is our best sprinter in a generation and the fans lose out big time.

It just annoys me so much to see Justin Gatlin run for the USA relay team and then knowing he will compete in London, after his drugs ban, and then we ban Dwayne. Why are we shooting ourselves in the foot when no other country in the world would do that?

We're just stupid.

PS I think Lennox Lewis is Canadian.

Fantastic, well done Mo!! It was an awesome race and won by a true champ. You inspired me to go to the track and do a few 200m reps this afternoon to get the leg speed going! :)

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Mo Farah is what is great about our country he came here from a country at war as an refegee and has become one of our great sportsmen. Yes he does have an African background, but so does Bernard Lagat (Kenya). I thought that last year was the best he could ever be but he has proved me wrong and many others.

Hello??? Is it not starting to dawn on you people that 2012 London is shaping up to be a PR disaster? Too many people believing their own publicity.The next Olympics will be remembered for the transport chaos and nothing else. Move on.

Mo came to Britain at 8 years old from a country ravaged by civil war and has become a world champion. It makes me hugely proud of our country that something like that could happen. Mo represents everything that is Great about Great Britain.

Seeing that the topic of relays has been introduced, it is worth recalling that GB squads in recent years have frequently relied upon the protest jury or the misfortunes of other teams to enhance their own medal status. Different story today , however which saw the team cast in a "terminator " role ! with the two clowns not alone ensuring their own demise but that of the potential silver medallists as well - when did you ever witness a block/tackle on a running track??
Methinks, quite a lot of work to be done to shake off the notion of SECOND CLASS NATION status

Great run Mo and agree with all the posts defending his right to Britishness, he is a product of our society and our system!
Shame about the usual suspects and their nasty negativity but there's always going a to be a few narrow minded oafs I suppose (and tripefc, what on earth has transport issues got to do with this particular blog anyway??!!)
Decent champs for GB in the end, 6th in the medals table and still plenty of room for improvement - 4 silvers, 3 of which could easily have been gold and took truly outstanding world class performances to beat them.

C'mon BBC. Post my comment. You left #7 on there for a good 20 mins before taking it down. It never should have gone on in the first place! Seeing that it did you should have the decency to post mine.

Its been a great world champs - outstanding performances in a lot of disciplines from a lot of athletes. Pearson's 100m hurdles win yesterday was sublime. Kirui's marathon, Taylor's triple jump, and the Jamaicans' sprint relay to name a few from the last couple of days. True athletics fans are celebrating! For those only interested in the Brits (seems like the majority around here), they acquitted themselves pretty well too. There's no reason to think that next year won't be just as enthralling in T&F. Transport chaos? tripefc how do you manage to get out of bed in the morning?

Tripefc - never was a name more fitting.

I expect you were one of those who said Britain would never be able to build the venues on time. Then we did, so now you have to move on to your next moan and prediction of doom. Its being so miserable that keeps you going isn't it? You're the sort who is only happy when something is going wrong I am afraid.

Born in Somalia and acheiving success after living in USA. A British success?

and that is in no way a racist comment. I'm just saying in these days of athletes changing nationality 2/3 times and trainign abroad I don't know why anyone supports their "country" or why patriotism makes sense. Support athletes you like. not based on some arbitrary affiliation.

#18 Paul Smith
"I think Lennox Lewis is Canadian."
He holds dual citizenship, British and Canadian but 'thinks' of himself as British.

#30 reallyneutral
Reallyneutral? What is neutral about telling people who they should and shouldn't support. If people want to support an athlete that competes under their flag then that's their choice.
If you can't make 'sense' of that, you shouldn't be under the illusion that we are all of the same low mentality.

reallyneutral: born to a British father, returned to the uk aged 8. Went through the British schools athletics system with a British running club. Only moved to america this year to enhance his own chances at world level after dominating at European level.

Mo Farah is absolutely a British success

Kane u missed my point, I said Mo Farah was just as British as Lennox Lewis is Canadian.

I was implying that Mo Farah is British having resided here since the age of 8 and learning all his skills here and I was also implying that Lennox Lewis is Canadian having moved to Canada at age 8 and learning all of his skills there.

Lennox Lewis representing Britain is the equivalent of Mo Farah now switching to represent Somalia. How would UK fans feel about that?

Mo was magnificent at the champs as were Dai and Hannah England. There is much to be positive about going to London next year and for Mo in particular. He has a genuine shot at two Golds! Read more here: http://wp.me/p1b961-6B

Utterly brilliant performance from Mo Farah, to run 10,000 meters and then run the 5,000 meters within the same week is amazing, to actually win the 5,000 meters after the crushing disappointment of missing out on Gold in the first race shows that Mo Farah is an athletic great. From listening to his post-match interviews Mo Farah seems to be a very level headed man, and one with a sense of humor!.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I'm not sure what our blogger means by monkey tennis - sounds a bit racist to me.
But anything would be more interesting than blokes running in a straight-ish line This country doesn't care about athletics. For one very good reason: it's dull. Give us football or tennis. Olympics? Yawn.

@18 - Lennox Lewis moved to Canada from the UK as a teenager. Mo came here as an 8 year old. So by your logic (that Lewis is a Canadian) Mo is British.

reallyneutral - He was born in Somalia then came here as a refugee age 8. He only moved to America to train a year ago. He's lived the majority of his life in the UK. Coached and developed by British coaches. He's no different to the British athletes who used to train in Australia during the 1990s.

@ 34 - Just seen your explanation and I understand your previous comment. To be honest Lewis switching to represent GB after the Canadians trained and developed him (he was even represented them at the olympics) I can imagine they were not best pleased.

sadly it was entirely predictable that people would (wrongly) question Mo's nationality, I wonder if he was say a white South African (perhaps one who's good at cricket) they'd as quick to slate him!?

PS Please let's not make anyone (be it Farah, Ennis or whoever) the 'face' of the games next year let them train and prepare without the hype that blights over sports e.g. the England football team.

Mo Farah is the perfect poster boy for London 2012 - a positive-reason immigrant as a youngster who was veering down the wrong side of the fence until he found something to channel his energy into. He worked at it, gave up so many things and is now reaping the rewards. This is the ultimate story of how it can be done - to come to this country with nothing and not rely on the welfare state to support you.
For all those who say that he "is not British" (perhaps paraphrasing for "doesn't deserve the right to be British"?) please bear in mind the myriad of British sports stars who were not born here: the aforementioned Linford Christie, a large proportion of the world-beating England Cricket team, many England Rugby players, Greg Rusedski... I could go on. The fact is that Mo recognises what it is to be British - the traditions, the never-give-up attitude, the stiff upper-lip etc. He was brought here by his Father for a better life, free from violence and since he was taken under the wing of his PE teacher, he has never wanted for a free ride, which arguably *some* immigrants are perceived as wanting.
The guy is British. Full stop.

Some Brits seriously take Xenophobia to a new level. Here you have a guy, only ever trained as a youngster in England, taken under the wing by some of Britain's finest. Happy and proud to call himself British. Always striving for the next level as a Brit. Reaches the top as a Brit. Actually looked proud yesterday when the Anthem was playing for him and still we have to mention that he was born elsewhere.

What would happen, theoretically speaking, if David Beckham's kids should they play a sport, decide not to play for England? I mean his youngest boy Cruz was born in Spain and lives in the US. Mo is more British than him then by that logic isn't he?

Mo deserves a MBE for his efforts. He is an inspiration.

My last comment was removed because it responded directly to a comment that claimed Mo isnt British so here is something else for the BBC moderators to chew on.

Its a terrible indictment on society in general that rather than comment on amazing individual human achievement, a large slice of the dicussion centres on where's he's from rather than what he has done. The championship are there to showcase the best in athlectic endeavours. Mo transformed crushing disappointment into glorious triumph using his given talent underpinned with self belief.

The discussion should be how insipring that commitment to be the best can be rather than debating what the criteria is to be 'British'.

Congrats to MO for his success. He has really worked hard for it. I hope people dont get too carried away though. Watching the race, Lagat had a poor tactics. If he had been o the inside lane close to Mo, i strongly believe he would have beaten Mo for pace. He looked stroger and faster coming from behind to finish 2nd. Mo has a good finish but he is certainly not the strongest sprinter in the field as proved by Jelain in the 10K.
Surely if Bekele is fit by 2012, Mo will be fighting for silver/bronze if he is to get a medal

Congratulations to Mo on an excellent year in a demanding event and he deserves all the success coming.

Mow has trained hard and I'm delighted for his success.

The problem with this article is here;
'I was talking to an agent before the final who represents some of the African runners.'
The author has made the mistake of thinking Mow's nationality (British) has changed his ethnicity (African).

#34 Paul Smith
I think, if Mo Farah wanted to run for Somalia and did so, opinion would be divided as always but I think one has to respect the athletes decision. It was tough on Canada losing Lewis but he was born in England and that is a big pull.
Mo's story is different also and I think it's ok to judge each case on it's merits.

#49 Lennox Lewis was British when it was convenient. Fought for Canada at 2 Olympics but given Britain's desperation for a Heavyweight Champ and knowing he could earn 10 times more as a British World Champ than a Canadian World Champ, he chose to leave the country where he'd lived half his life and learned all his skills to come back to Britain for the money.

I suppose we better give The Ashes back to the Aussies then Strauss Petersen and Trott were not born here, seems to me we pick and choose who see as British. Well done Mo you made a proud Brit happy

#50 conradedkins
"...he chose to leave..."
You operate in life minus any wisdom. Had your parents emigrated when you were 12, what would you have done, stayed behind? No! He didn't choose, he had no choice and when he did have that choice he came back.