Mo Farah's dramatic comeback earns him Olympic 10,000m gold

By Nick Murray, CBC Sports

Great Britain's Mo Farah defended his Olympic gold medal in dramatic fashion Saturday night in Rio. Farah stumbled mid-race, got up and won the men's 10,000-metres.

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• SCHEDULE: Track and field at Rio 2016

"When I went down it didn't take a lot out of me and I got up quickly, I thought about how much I'd worked and I wasn't going to let it affect me. It's hard mentally when you go down," an emotional Farah, who finished in 27 minutes, 5.17 seconds, told reporters.

Kenya's Paul Kipngetich Tanui won silver with a season-best 27:05.64, while Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola won bronze in 27:06.26.

Canada's Mohammed Ahmed finished 32nd of 34, in 29:32:84, having let up with about three kilometres to go.

"Honestly I don't really know, I think I did too many surges," a visibly disappointed Ahmed said. 

"That's just how the race was. It was a lot of surging. It was like a washing machine out there. I got to eight laps to go, and I just couldn't go."

Ahmed said he'll now turn his focus to the 5,000m. The qualifying heats are Wednesday. 

Farah fell with roughly 16 laps to go after being tripped by American training partner Galen Rupp.

But he worked his way back up to third over the next four laps. He was in first going into the final lap, but Tanui made a push and took over with about 300 metres to go, before Farah made his move coming around the final turn to hang on and win.

"I got emotional because you put so much work in and in one moment it's gone," Farah said of his fall. "That one moment could be it, I just had to get through it and believe in myself."

Farah is also favoured to win the 5,000-metres next weekend, an event he also won in London 2012. Finland's Lasse Viren is the only other athlete to accomplish the "double double," winning and defending the gold medals in the 10,000 and 5,000 at Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976.

USA's Henderson wins long jump gold

Jeff Henderson of the United States won gold in the men's long jump on Saturday, leaping 8.38 metres to snatch the title in the last round.

Luvo Manyonga of South Africa took silver to claim his first Olympic medal while Britain's defending champion Greg Rutherford had to settle for bronze.

As the reigning Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European champion, Rutherford had been favourite ahead of the Games. But he scraped into the final in 10th place in qualifying and could only jump 8.29 metres in an ill-fated bid to defend his title.

"I never thought in my career I'd be disappointed with a bronze medal but I'm gutted," the 29-year-old told reporters, tears streaming down his face. "I came here to win. I'm going away disappointed."

Henderson and the British defending champion put themselves ahead of the pack early in the competition, both jumping more than eight metres on their first attempts to stake a claim for the podium. But Manyonga, who fouled two of his first three attempts, shocked the Brazilian crowd and his competitors with a jump of 8.28 metres in the fourth round.

Invigorated, the 25-year-old then flew 8.37 metres on his next attempt, putting him at the top of the leaderboard and on course for Olympic gold.

"I knew I had something big in me. I felt it in me, it was growing inside," Manyonga said. "I wanted to get more. If there was an extra jump, a seventh jump, I promise you, it would have been a massive one."

Henderson's victory was secured with his last jump which edged out the South African by one centimetre.

Barber qualifies in men's pole vault

Canadian Shawn Barber had a scare in his qualifying run in men's pole vaulting.

The Toronto native missed his first two attempts in Rio at 5.45 metres. He made his third attempt before going on to make 5.60. He missed his first attempt 5.70 before clearing it a second time. 

• WATCH: Shawn Barber qualifies for men's pole vault final

It was uncharacteristic misses for Barber, whose personal best this year is 5.91.

The final is set for Monday.

McBride misses 800m final

After winning his first round heat in the men's 800, Brandon McBride came up short in the semifinals.

The Windor, Ont., native failed to qualify for Monday's final, finishing sixth in his semifinal in 1:45.41.

"I just wanted to get on the shoulder of the leader and I wasn't able to do that. I kind of got caught out of position and wasted a ton of energy trying to jostle for position," McBride said. 

"That was the difference between qualifying and not qualifying. I've just got to be better tactically."

Men's 400 finals set

Grenada's Kirani James cruised into Sunday's 400m final, running a season-best 44.02 seconds, as the London 2012 gold medallist let up well before the finish line.

Beijing 2008 champion Lashawn Merritt ran the second-fastest time in 44.21 seconds, while South African Wayde van Niekerk — who beat Merritt and James to win the world title in a thrilling final in Beijing last year — qualified in fifth for the highly-anticipated finals, running a 44.45.

With files from The Associated Press and Reuters