London: Britain's Mo Farah made it a second Super Saturday for a frenzied home crowd at the Olympic Stadium, winning the 5,000 meters to clinch a long distance double at the London Games.
Taking the lead with 700 meters to go, Farah staved off all challenges and, riding incessant howls of encouragement, swept away on the home straight. He threw his hands wide in victory, slapped his head and screamed out loud in amazement after he crossed the line.
Again, David Bowie's "Heroes" blared over the speakers, just like it did last Saturday when British athletes won three gold within one hour. Without a doubt, Farah made a great Olympics for Britain even more unforgettable.
"The crowd helped him. He ran 100 percent and they added another 10," said fouth-place finisher Bernard Lagat of the United States. "So you had a guy running at 110 percent."
Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia threatened until 50 meters out but faded to take silver. Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya won bronze.
Little more than an hour earlier, Russian Yelena Lashmanova had claimed the third world record of the games, in the 20-kilometer walk.
Lashmanova walked past teammate and defending champion Olga Kaniskina within sight of the finish Saturday evening to clock 1 hour, 25 minutes and 2 seconds and win the Olympic gold medal. She improved on the one-year-old world mark by six seconds.
David Rudisha in the 800 and the U.S. women's 4x100-meter relay set new world records in the Olympic stadium.
Earlier Saturday, two-time world champion Sergei Kirdyapkin claimed an Olympic record in the 50-kilometer race walk, the longest event in the track and field program.
And world champion Mariya Savinova of Russia won the Olympic 800-meter title, beating Caster Semenya of South Africa.
The victories gave Russia seven gold to further cement its second-place standing in the track and field medals table, just one behind the United States. In a packed evening program there were three more Olympic titles at stake before Sunday's closing men's marathon.
Walking through a glorious morning sunshine in 21 C (70F) heat at the Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace, Kirdyapkin crossed in 3 hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds to slash 1 minute, 10 seconds off the Olympic record of 2008 champion Alex Schwazer, the Italian who was kicked out of the London Games because of doping.
Australia's Jared Tallent finished 50 seconds behind to get the silver and Si Tianfeng of China got the bronze.
Saturday evening, Usain Bolt will be happy to cut just .01 of a second off the 4x100-meter relay world mark his Jamaican team set last year.
For all the excitement that Bolt has already generated at the Olympics, one thing is still missing for him in London: a world record. It has flashed up twice already in other events in yellow on the stadium time clock: "WR" — for the men's 800 meters and the women's 4x100 relay.
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