Despite a mid-race fall, Mo Farah won the 10,000m in Rio on Saturday night (13 August), becoming the first British athlete to win three gold medals on the track and only the fourth man to defend an Olympic 10,000m title. 

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Farah charged past Kenyan Paul Tanui on the last lap and retained the title he won on that unforgettable night in London four years ago. 

There was a scare earlier in the race when Farah, 33, was tripped by his training partner, USA's Galen Rupp on the 10th lap. But the Briton quickly got up and signalled all was OK with a thumbs up. 

'Oh my God, that's it'

"When I went down, I thought, 'Oh my God, that's it.' I just got up and wanted to stick with the guys and stay strong. It's never easy but everyone knows what I can do," Farah said.

"I thought about all my hard work and that it could all be gone in a minute. I wasn't going to let it go. I got up quickly. I thought about my family. It made me emotional."

Farah worked his way back up to third with 11 laps to go and was first going into the bell lap, but Tanui made a charge with 300m to go and led until Farah surged again and sprinted away to win in 27 minutes and 5.17 seconds. Tanui held on for silver in 27:05.64 and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took bronze.

Farah has not lost a major race since taking silver in the 10,000m at the 2011 world championships. His Rio 2016 plans also include a defence of the 5000m title he won in London.

He also won the 5000m and 10,000m titles at the two world championships held since the London 2012 Olympic Games, meaning he could achieve a unique ‘quadruple-double’ in Brazil, by winning the two long distance races at two consecutive Olympic Games and two consecutive world championships.

‘I’m putting my body through hell every day to make sure I do myself proud in Rio,’ says Mo Farah

Changing of the guard

In the women's 100m, all eyes were on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who was seeking to become the first woman in track to win three Olympic gold medals in a row. But it was her fellow Jamaican Elaine Thompson who ran away with gold.

Thompson, 24, turned what was supposed to be one of the most competitive races on the Olympic programme into a stroll. Running even at the halfway mark with Fraser-Pryce and Tori Bowie of the United States, Thompson pulled away over the last half and defeated Bowie with a bookshelf-sized slice of daylight in between, finishing in 10.71 seconds

Elaine Thompson wins the 100m gold for Jamaica (Photo: Getty Images/Shaun Botterill)

Fraser-Pryce led the women's final early, but faded, and settles for a bronze medal to go with the green-and-yellow, Jamaican-flag hairdo she worked up for her turn as her country's flagbearer at the opening ceremony.

Ennis-Hill toppled

Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium beat defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Great Britain to win an Olympic heptathlon competition that went down to a matter of seconds in the last event.

Jessica-Ennis Hill won the 800m but lost the competition (Photo: Getty Images/Shaun Botterill)

Ennis-Hill won the 800m in a season-best time of 2:09.07 seconds, not quite enough to overhaul Thiam, who had a 142-point lead going into the last of seven disciplines and finished in 2:16.54.

"This is my last Olympics, and it's strange knowing I won't be at another major championships like these," Ennis said after the race.

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The 21-year-old Thiam tallied 6,810 points, 35 ahead of second-place Ennis-Hill to claim her first major title.

"It's crazy," Thiam said. "I wasn't expecting that - maybe top eight, but not the gold. It was very hard coming back from being injured. I wasn't sure if I would even make these Games. But with the physio we did a lot of work and it worked."

Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada took bronze with 6,653 points.

Henderson wins long jump for USA

In the men's long jump final, Jeff Henderson won gold for the USA with a leap of 8.38m. The silver medal went to South African Luvo Manyonga, whose jump of 8.37m bettered London 2012 champion Greg Rutherford (8.29m), who had to settle for bronze.

Earlier in the day, Germany's Christoph Harting made sure the Olympic discus title stayed in his family with a massive last throw. His brother Robert, the defending champion, was eliminated in Friday's qualifying rounds.

Christoph Harting threw 68.37m for a personal best on his sixth attempt, overtaking world champion Piotr Malachowski of Poland, who had been leading with 67.55m. Germany's Daniel Jasinski took bronze with 67.05m.

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