IT was not the Russian runaway that many had mooted but for Mo Farah it was revenge rather than an assault on the history books that pushed him to World Championships gold in the 10,000m.
A world title over 10k was the last thing left for Farah to add to an otherwise glittering CV after then-unknown Ibrahim Jeilan shocked the Briton in Daegu 24 months ago.
In Moscow, however, it was Jeilan who had to settle for silver against a nigh unbeatable Farah, the reigning double Olympic champion and an overwhelming favourite to add the 5000m world crown later on in this championships.
Such is Farah's dominance that many were already anointing the 30-year-old world champion before he had even taken to the track in Moscow. And, while the Ethiopian and Kenyan contingents seemed to be struggling for ideas to match the America-based Briton, the sprint finish was far from a formality.
Jeilan chased hard and with 75m to go in the home straight appeared about to draw level with Farah but he had enough left to hold off his rival and claim gold, much to his relief.
"It was a very exciting race to be involved in," said Farah, who came home in a time of 27.21.71 minutes in the Luzhniki Stadium. "I remember two years go almost the exact same thing happened, it was a very similar race. But this time I knew how important it was going to be that I had something left in the tank.
"I could see as we went into the last lap that he was still there so I knew I would have to make the lap worth it. But then with 200m I saw him again making moves on the outside and into the home straight I was just thinking 'not again, please not again', and I had just enough.
"I did feel like this was something missing. Jeilan did wonderfully well in Daegu but it was something that had been in my mind that has been missing.
"After London I want to chase that feeling and that was what I was thinking about as I pushed for the line."
Next for Farah is the 5000m, the heats of which begin on Thursday, and the Somalia-born athlete will be defending his world title from two years ago. Over the shorter distance the Kenyans and Ethiopians will have to try to produce a quicker pace to run Farah out of the race. Indeed, he was delighted that he was not put under more pressure earlier in yesterday's race.
"I was surprised at how slow it was," he added. "I knew the Ethiopians had four guys, as did the Kenyans, so there was a lot of talk they would take up the pace. My aim was to save energy and it was quite slow, the perfect race for me. I thought they would push to try to get rid of me.
"I will take nothing for granted in the 5000m now. I want to win as many medals as I can as it makes all the hard work worth it."
Elsewhere, Christine Ohuruogu won her 400m heat with a time of 50.20 seconds to go through to the semi-finals as the fastest qualifier, while Andrew Osagie and Michael Rimmer both finished third in their respective heats to reach today's 800m semi-finals.
Shara Proctor needed just one leap to qualify for today's long jump final. However, compatriot Lorraine Ugen is out on her World Championships debut after failing to record a distance.
There was also bad news for decathlete Ashley Bryant as he withdrew before the competition even got started with a hamstring injury, while Steve Lewis failed to register a height as he crashed out of the pole vault.
Dwain Chambers, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and James Dasaolu, however, all came through their 100m heats, even though the latter, who turned heads when he ran 9.91 seconds at the British Championships, went through as a fastest loser.
Dasaolu had not raced since setting that personal best last month and the 25-year-old admitted he had no idea how his Russian bow would go.
"I haven't had the best preparation because since I ran 9.91 I haven't raced because I have had a hip problem," Dasaolu said. "That was my first time out of the blocks for a few weeks so I didn't really know where I was heading into the race but hopefully I can improve."
One man who had no problem getting through was Usain Bolt. The world record holder got his customary slow start before pulling clear and easing down to win his heat in 10.07sec.
Double defending decathlon world champion Trey Hardee exited the competition yesterday as he no-heighted in the high jump, leaving fellow Americans Ashton Eaton and Gunnar Nixon fighting it out at the halfway mark.
o The National Lottery is backing more than 1300 elite athletes across 44 sports on the road to Rio. To find out how playing The National Lottery supports sport and many other life-changing projects in your community visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article