Moorcroft hails fantastic Farah

Former world record holder Dave Moorcroft has hailed Mo Farah's victory in the 5,000 metres at the World Championships as "perfection".

Seven days after being pipped to victory in the 10,000m in Daegu, Farah returned to the track and held off American Bernard Lagat to win a dramatic 5,000m in 13 minutes 23.36 seconds.

Farah was contesting the lead at the bell, crucially maintaining the inside line on the orders of his coach Alberto Salazar as Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel tried to go around the outside.

With 100m to go Gebremeskel began to fade and it was Lagat - world champion over 1,500 and 5,000m in 2007 - who began to threaten, but Farah bravely held on to become the first British man to win a World title over 5,000m.

"It was perfection," said Moorcroft, who set a world record of 13mins 00.41secs in 1982, a time which stood as a British record for 28 years until Farah broke it last year in Zurich.

"It was everything we hoped he could produce, that he didn't quite produce in the 10,000m, as brave as it was.

"I probably can speak on behalf of all British distance runners. We're really proud of what Mo did tonight. No male distance runner has ever won a global title at 5,000 or 10,000m.

"Liz McColgan won the 10,000m back in 1991, Paula Radcliffe won the marathon in 2005. We've waited a long long time for an athlete like Mo to emerge and be the best in the world. Tonight he's not only the fastest in the world, he's the best racer."

Moorcroft, who was also chief executive of UK Athletics from 1997-2007, added on Channel Four: "Unpredictability in a championship is something you have to contend with as a distance runner.

"You can't rely on the fact it's going to be fast, you have to have a series of different options and tonight Mo just had too many answers to any question that was thrown at him.

"On the last lap all he did was wind it up. It was a very, very fast last lap, but he came off the top bend with one more gear and the rest couldn't respond.

"It was perfect in timing, perfect in terms of execution and it was a real great combination between physical effort and brain."

UK Athletics' head of endurance Ian Stewart also believes Farah's tactical nous makes him a massive medal prospect for next year's London Olympics.

Stewart, who won Olympic bronze over 5,000m at the 1972 Munich Olympics, said: "It's about how bad do you want it. It's pure work ethic.

"This is great in that he (Farah) has a great racing head on him. He is obviously a real serious contender for London.

"When he ran the 10k and took off at 600m, everyone was saying he went too soon. No he didn't. You need a lot of bottle to do that. At the end they knew they had been in a race all right. When he walked off the track that night I was so proud of him."

Stewart also revealed he is in almost daily contact with Salazar after approving Farah's move to Oregon to work with the American, adding: "Mo is the first world championship medallist that Alberto has ever had, but Alberto and I think very similarly.

"There are a lot of European countries looking at us and saying 'Hang on, what are they doing that we aren't?"'