Mo Farah reigns supreme, Thompson is new sprint queen

Fraser-Pryce, who took bronze in a fantastic final, became the third athlete in two days to discover why no woman has ever managed to win three individual athletics titles in a row, after Ethiopian 10,000m runner Tirunesh Dibaba and New Zealand shot-putter Valerie Adams both came up short on Friday. 

Jessica Ennis-Hill also failed in her bid to defend her heptathlon title, pipped to gold by 21-year-old Belgian student Nafissatou Thiam, who said she had only dreamt of a top-eight finish prior to the event. Farah, however, just does not know how to lose when it comes to the big races. 

The Briton has won the 10,000m in the last two world championships and the 5,000 in the last three.

He has now won back-to-back Olympic 10,000m golds and is seeking to retain the 5,000m too, hoping to emulate Finn Lasse Viren, the only man to defend both titles in 1976 and who also fell while winning the longer race in 1972. 

Every one of Farah’s victories have come in virtually the same way as he sits in behind a group of Ethiopians and Kenyans before blasting out an unstoppable final lap. 

There was a twist on Saturday, however, as he tripped and fell early in the race when he tangled with his American training partner Galen Rupp with 16 laps remaining. 

He bounced up quickly though and with the East Africans failing to test him by pushing the pace, there was an air of inevitability about the outcome as he swept past Kenya’s Paul Tanui and roared home. “It’s hard mentally when you go down,” a tearful Farah admitted. 

The 100m final initially appeared impossible to call after all eight women qualified in sub-11 second times but as it turned out, Thompson won comfortably in 10.71 after hitting the front at halfway. 

America Tori Bowie took silver in 10.83 while Fraser-Pryce edged out Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou by seven thousandths of a second.