On this day in 2010: Barcelona gold is Sir Mo Farah’s springboard to greatness
The Great Britain runner went on to win back-to-back Olympic distance doubles in an illustrious career.
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Your support makes all the difference.On this day in 2010, Sir Mo Farah won gold for Great Britain in the 10,000 metres final at the European Championships in Barcelona
It was Britain’s first European title over that distance, in the first track final of the Championships in the Olympic Stadium.
Farah turned in a confident display as he took gold in 28 minutes 24.99 seconds ahead of team-mate Chris Thompson.
Then aged 27, he started off the pace and then took to the front of the race with five laps remaining – even having time to encourage his team-mate, who was involved in a battle with Italy’s Daniele Meucci, to the silver medal.
The Somalia-born athlete, who went on to become a household name, had only just stepped up to the 10,000m having won 5,000m silver at the previous European Championships in Gothenburg and gold at the European indoor championships over 3,000m.
It was the start of things to come in an illustrious career which resulted in a knighthood, including winning Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m doubles in both 2012 and 2016.
Although he was not able to qualify to defend his titles in Tokyo this summer, Farah can boast a haul of four Olympic gold medals, six World Championship titles, five at the Europeans, as well as two World Championship silver medals. He was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2017.