Mo Farah achieves double double despite stitch

After months of relentless training, the endless miles clocked up, the sacrifice of time away from family, but with an unwavering dedication to succeed, Mo Farah was almost undone by a common runners' ailment - a stitch.

His scent for a battle ripe, Farah completed the double double, the holy grail of distance running - the 5,000- and 10,000-metres Olympic and world titles held simultaneously.

It turns out that the Briton, elevated without doubt now into the pantheon of long-distance greats - think Emil Zatopek, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele among others - had most to worry about from the intense pain under his ribcage, and not the battery of Ethiopians and Kenyans lining up to dethrone him.

The men from Africa tried and failed at last year's Olympics. In Moscow, they again played right into his hands, the slow pace in both races allowing Farah to be where he wanted to be.

Ahead at the bell and in position to kick from the front. Catch me if you can.

"In my honest opinion I thought the race would have gone harder - because the guys are thinking, 'He's already done 25 laps around the track, plus the 5k heat,'" said Farah, 30, after digging deep to retain his 5,000-metres title, holding off Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet and Kenyan Isiah Kiplangat Koech.

"It suited me today. I had a stitch from about eight laps to go and I was kind of pushing my stomach in, but then the pace slowed down and I tried to forget about it and come through."