Mo Farah 13/8 To Collect 5000m Gold: Gebremeskel A Big Danger

Men’s Olympic 5,000m Final Saturday 11th August
Live on TV: BBC1 7.30pm

Mo Farah goes into Saturday night’s men’s 5,000 metre final with one Olympic Gold medal tucked safely away in his glittering trophy cabinet and would love nothing more than to add another in becoming a double Olympic Champion in his own back yard.

The Great Briton made history by being the first Olympic gold medal winner of the longest of the track events with his stunning victory on Super Saturday at the Olympic Stadium.

Now Mo aims to take himself past even his own dreams and expectations in his second track final in a week, in front of an adoring nation.

After controlling and then simply blowing away the field in the 10000 metre final, surely he’s capable of repeating the feat in arguably his stronger event?

Well, despite the 5000 metres being half the length of Farah’s first Olympic medal winning discipline, it could prove twice as difficult for the Somalian-born Brit to shake off the competition and finish top of the pack.

Mo Farah is slight favourite at Bet365 where he is available at a price of 13/8 for another gold but almost the same price is Farah’s Ethiopian rival Dejen Gebremeskel, a 7/4 shot and clear second favourite ahead of the rest of the field.

So, how does Mo Farah match up to the young starlet Gebremeskel in terms of previous duels? You’ll be pleased to know that Mo’s flawless record of late which includes 2 European golds and a World gold in the last 3 Championships since 2010 dwarf that of Dejen Gebremeskel who only has one Senior Major Championship medal, a bronze in the World’s last year (which Mo Farah won).

And although the 22-year old Ethiopian hasn’t had the better of Mo to date, he does boast a personal best in the 5,000 metres that is an impressive 7 seconds faster than Farah’s PB of 12:53.

The key to success and a fantastic 2 gold medals in as many weeks is very much down to the tactical nous of Mo Farah. He knows Gebremeskel has the ability to run a quicker 5,000 metres than him but conversely he also knows that if he manages to get to the bell in contention, he simply has too much pace for the young pretender.

Dejen Gebremeskel is a fantastic distance athlete but he will not entertain getting into a sprint for home with Great Britain’s greatest ever distance runner as he will fear there will be only one outcome.

Gebremeskel laid down a mark of intent in winning the 2nd 5,000 metres heat and qualifying for the final with the quickest time (just shy of 11 seconds quicker than Mo) but the experienced head of the magnificent Mo Farah means he is the one to beat in what is sure to be a thrilling final that will no doubt go down to the wire.