TNT Sports
Farah, Lagat to do battle
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Published 01/09/2011 at 06:00 GMT+1
American Bernard Lagat ran like "a million bucks" to win his 5,000 metres heat at the World Championships in Daegu, while Britain's Mo Farah managed to stay out of trouble in a physical second heat to cruise into the final.
Eurosport
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Berlin champion and world record holder Kenenisa Bekele, who returned from a two-year injury lay-off only to limp out of the 10,000 on Sunday, had decided not to run and will instead focus on his preparations for the London Olympics.
Ethiopian Imane Merga flashed a wide grin at Farah as he sped past him to win the second heat in 13:37.96, and received a pat on the back from the Briton for his efforts.
Merga had taken bronze in the 10,000 final, where favourite Farah finished second.
"It was good, I just had to come out here and do the heat and I'm looking forward to the final now," Farah said.
"My legs feel alright so I'm looking forward to the final."
At 36, Kenya-born Lagat is the elder statesman in the field but his legs looked full of running as he recorded the quickest time of the morning heats in 13:33.90.
Lagat, who won gold in the 1,500 and 5,000 at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka and has been a force in distance running for a decade, shaved off the beard he had in the lead-up to Daegu and said he meant business.
"Now I'm serious," he said, having received a pep talk from his son Miika before his heat. "He asked me how I felt and I said, 'like a million bucks.'
"He told me: 'Then go out and run like a million bucks.'"
Lagat had said before the championships in South Korea that he would not run the 1,500 and would focus on the longer distance.
"I won (the heat) and it is a great motivation for the final," he added. "There are a lot of strong guys here. I want to be ready mentally and physically to compete against the best 5000m runners."
Also among the qualifiers for Sunday's final were American Galen Rupp, Ireland's Alistair Cragg and Kenyan Isiah Koech.
The crowd reserved a special round of applause for Gabon's Christian Ngingba, who finished more than five minutes behind Merga in the second heat to record his personal best.
In what was a good morning for British athletes only long jumper Greg Rutherford, struggling with injury, failed to make it to the next stage of competition.
Rutherford had looked well set to make it into the final with a first round leap of 8.00m but the unlucky 24-year-old was once again struck down by an injury, to his hamstring.
Injury was a theme for the GB long-jumpers with Chris Tomlinson battling a knee problem that he referred to as jumper's knee on his way to booking a final berth.
A leap of 8.02m was ultimately just enough for the European bronze medallist to scrape through, on countback, in the final qualifying berth.
There was no such nerve-jangling for Goldie Sayers in the javelin who qualified automatically with her second throw of 62.19m.
"It's nice to have got the job done. The first round was not quite so good but it's good to be in the final," she said.
Reigning 800m bronze medallist Jenny Meadows was easily the most impressive of three Brits progressing to the semi-finals, revealing she might face the wrath of coach, and husband, Trevor Painter, for the manner with which she won her heat.
"My coach told me to go around in third or fourth but as I came across I was naturally near the front so I thought ‘well there's no point tripping over so I might as well get a bit of a draft," she said.
Marilyn Okoro was made to work for her spot, qualifying fourth - both in her heat and overall - in a rapid race while Emma Jackson progressed as a fastest loser.
The 23-year-old ran a far from ideal race tactically but her time of 2.01.17 minutes was enough.
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