Britain’s best in an Olympic 5,000m final before this was a solitary silver, to Gordon Pirie back in 1956, and the bronze medals of Ian Stewart, Derek Ibbotson and George Hutson, all of them dating back 40 years or more.
Only six other men have achieved a distance double at the same Olympics, and each remains an icon – Zatopek, Viren, Bekele; Kuts, Kolehmainen, Yifter.
What makes Farah’s achievement all the more laudable is not just his ability to get over the physical lows and emotional highs of that first victory, won in his home city at its home Olympics, but the backstory that brought him to this point.
Four years ago in Beijing, he failed to even get through the heats of this event.
Sixteen years further back, on his first day at school in the city having arrived as a refugee from Somalia, he tried both the English phrases his father had taught him – “where is the toilet?” and “come on then” – had the misfortune to say the wrong one to the wrong kid and took a beating.
Certain key individuals have helped guide him from that inauspicious start to this special night.
