London Olympics 2012: Farah Storms to 5,000m Gold

Mo Farah becomes the seventh athlete in Olympic history to win the 5,000m and 10,000m title after sprinting to a second gold medal to etch his name in long-distance running history.

Having cruised to his maiden Olympic title last Saturday, Farah repeated the feat to enter the pantheon of long distance running greats.

Following a slowly run opening 11 laps, the 29 year old change tact and hit the front with Ethiopian Dejen Gebremesekel, who claimed second, unable to run him down in the home straight.

"It's unbelievable," Farah said. "I had a lot of confidence coming in. In the heat I didn't feel so good and coming in I was hoping the guys would try to get rid of me but they didn't so it was pretty good.

"I knew I just had to hold on and going into it I got great support from the crowd. It means a lot to me and obviously my two girls have come, one not born yet, I didn't want to leave her out.

"I'm just taking it one race at a time, the Olympics don't come along very often. I'll take everything once at a time so I'm just amazed, two gold medals who would have thought that?

"I'm looking forward to running in Birmingham and in the Great North Run so I'm really excited. It's unbelievable.

"I just want to thank everyone, all my coaches even in previous years and I can't thank everyone enough. It's been a long journey, and grafting and grafting but anything is possible."

Farah had reason to be cautious in the early stages, as the pace failed to pick up through the first 4,000m, with the likes of Bernard Lagat and Kiplangat Koech looking threatening.

But with two laps left, Farah kicked into top gear, and led out in the final 600m, where his prowess has seen the world and European champion ranked as one of the world's deadliest long distance runners.

And Lagat and co had good reason to be fearful, as the Brit powered a length clear in the final lap, but Gebremeskel was readying a late salvo.

However, the Ethiopian left it too late to kick and Farah strolled away in similar fashion to his 10,000m victory, with Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya taking bronze.

Within a week, Farah has gone from a perenial underachiever, to a double Olympic champion, and with the London 2012 slogan of 'inspire a generation' central to the legacy of Games, his achievement could be vital to that strapline becoming a reality.