Fantastic Farah seals 10,000m gold

MO FARAH last night became the first British man to win the European 10,000 metre title as he led home a brilliant one-two in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.

Farah turned in a display of supreme confidence, bordering on arrogance, as he took gold in 28 minutes, 24.99 seconds ahead of team-mate Chris Thompson.

The Somalia-born 27-year-old had finally hit the front in a slow race with five laps to go, but then beckoned Spain's Ayad Lamdassem through to take up the pace with just over three laps remaining. Remarkably, a lap later Farah was so confident the race was his that he turned around to encourage Thompson, who was engaged in a battle with Italy's Daniele Meucci some 30m behind.

And the gambit paid massive dividends as Farah stormed clear with 350m to go and Thompson produced a rousing finish to overhaul Lamdassem and just hold off Meucci on the line, both athletes given the same time of 28:27.33.

Four years ago in Gothenburg Britain won just one gold medal in the entire championships, claiming the men's 4x100m relay on the final day of competition. But Farah and Thompson were always expected to deliver, coming into the race separated by less than a second this year, but more than 30 seconds quicker than anyone else in the field. A delighted Farah, who won silver in the 5,000m four years ago, said: "That was amazing. One-two has never been done before and it just feels so great to be here."

Earlier in the evening, Dwain Chambers underlined his status as favourite for the 100m with a commanding performance in the heats.

Chambers, who won the title in 2002 but had to hand back his gold medal following his positive drugs test the following year, stormed to victory in 10.21 seconds to secure his place in tomorrow's semi-final. "It was comfortable," Chambers said. "It was a bit nerve-wracking to begin with as it always is for me. Getting the heats out the way is always tough and with the one false start rule I am not taking any chances."

France's Christophe Lemaitre, Chambers' main rival for the gold medal and fastest in Europe this year, was the quickest qualifier, winning the final heat in 10.19 ahead of Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis. Britain's James Dasaolu also advanced after finishing third in his heat in 10.40.

World championship bronze medallist Jenny Meadows and the in-form Jemma Simpson also advanced to Friday's final of the women's 800m, but team-mate Marilyn Okoro missed out after finishing fourth in her heat.

Meadows proved she has fully recovered from recent calf and Achilles problems to clock 1:58.90, just one-hundredth of a second slower than both her seasonal best and the fastest qualifier, Russia's Svetlana Klyuka.

Simpson, fresh off a personal best and second-fastest time in Europe this year in Monte Carlo five days ago, was equally impressive in winning her heat in 1:59.18.

There was also success for Britain in the field events, with Phillips Idowu and Nathan Douglas reaching the triple jump final, and Martyn Bernard and Tom Parsons doing likewise in the high jump.

Earlier in the day, Perri Shakes-Drayton and Eilidh Child also breezed into the semi-finals of the 400 metres hurdles. The British duo, first and second in the Under-23 championships last year, both finished second in their heats, with Child making light of being stuck out in lane eight.

The 23-year-old from Perth also handled the hot conditions, with the temperature already approaching 85 degrees by 10am local time.

Child, 23, said: "We were obviously up quite early this morning and it was reasonably cool, but when you get on the track it's just completely open.

"I used to be really bad in the heat - obviously coming from Scotland I'm not used to it - but the preparation camp in Portugal really helped. If I can get the start like I did today and just hold the technique going into the home straight I'll finish even faster."