Mo Farah claims first half of his quest with 10,000m win at European Championships

Mo Farah ran to another golden finish as he took the men’s 10,000-metre title just six weeks after collapsing in his bathroom and being airlifted to hospital.

Great Britain's Mohamed Farah, front, reacts as he crosses the finish line ahead of teammate Andy Vernon, left, to win the men's 10000m final during the European Championships at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich on August 13, 2014. Olivier Morin / AFP
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ZURICH // Mo Farah ran to another golden finish as he took the men’s 10,000-metre title just six weeks after collapsing in his bathroom and being airlifted to hospital.

That illness, which forced Farah to miss the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow this month, had many questioning whether the 31-year-old Briton would be fit enough to compete at the European Championships, a question he answered with a 28 minute, 8.11 second win over teammate Andy Vernon on Tuesday.

Farah is unbeaten in the Euros since winning both the 10,000m and 5,000m in 2010. Round 1 of the 5,000m is Friday with the final Sunday.

Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands ran to the first of three gold medals she is pursuing, finishing in 11.12 seconds to win the women’s 100m.

Myriam Soumare of France was right behind her at 11.16 and Ashleigh Nelson of Great Britain took the bronze in 11.22 as defending champion Ivet Lalova of Bulgaria finished a disappointing fifth in 11.33.

Schippers is also favoured to win the 200m later in the week and will compete with the Dutch sprint relay team over the weekend.

Rain, wind and cold temperatures hit Zurich all day yesterday. Winds knocked down some advertising panels in the late afternoon and the evening session was delayed by half an hour as stormy weather past through.

Even with the blustery conditions the men’s race walkers still managed to create a thrilling finish as Miguel Angel Lopez of Spain pulled away from two Russians to win the 20-kilometre event. Aleksandr Ivanov took silver and Denis Strelkov took bronze.

A quartet of walkers entered the final kilometre together. Ivanov sought to shake off Lopez several times but the Spaniard responded and no one could match his last burst. Lopez finished in one hour, 19 minutes, 44 seconds, one second ahead of Ivanov and another second in front of Strelkov.

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