Five years after making history in his home country at the 2012 Olympics, Mo Farah returned to win the fifth global 10K title of his career and his tenth overall global title. The British distance phenom won the men's 10K in 26:49 with a 55-second last lap at the IAAF World Championships in London on Friday night. The performance was just three seconds shy of Kenenisa Bekele's championship record.

Farah's path to the title was anything but easy. The Kenyans and standout Ugandan of the field, Joshua Cheptegei ran with determination to break Mo Farah from the start. They took the race out in 61 seconds through 400m. Meanwhile, Farah executed his trademark tactic of laying back during the early stages of the race, and it paid off as he was able to avoid most of the roughhousing up front while biding his time. He didn't share the lead until just before the 4K mark.

Cheptegei and Kenyans Geoffrey Kamworor, Bedan Karoki Muchiri, and Paul Tanui seemed extremely communicative throughout the race, regularly trading the lead and shifting places to keep the pace honest. After slowing down considerably from the opening few laps, the field started to get comfortable at a more consistent 4:20 1600m pace for the next few miles.

Muchiri made the first real break of the race just before the 5K, splitting another 61-second lap in an attempt to distance himself from Farah. It appeared to work when the move made Farah shift back from first to 15th. The field came through in 13:33 through 5K, on pace for a 27:06 finish.

By 6K, Hassan Mead had fallen off the lead pack, but the other two Americans, Leonard Korir and Shadrack Kipchirchir remained in the top group with Farah and the pace-pushers. The race was still at 27:08 pace, which narrowed the pack to 15 by the time they hit 7K.

By the time Cheptegei rolled through 8K in 21:40, the race started to speed up. The pack hit the previous 1600m in 4:17, which was the fastest split of the race at that point. With one mile to go, world leader Abadi Hadis became the first to initiate a kick. He continued to lead through 9K.

Farah began to share the lead again with two laps to go, and to the world's surprise, Tanui made a strong push at the bell lap. Would this be the move that would finally break Farah? The answer was no, as Farah was still able to close in 1:57 (800m) and 55 (400m) to take home the hard-earned win. With plenty of room on the homestretch, Farah shut it down and celebrated with 50m to go. The win was secured to the delight of the packed London Stadium.

Behind him, Mo Ahmed broke Cam Levins' Canadian national record by five seconds when he ran 27:02. All three Americans had impressive days as well, and walked away with new personal bests:

All 3 Americans set pbs!
9th Kipchirchir (27:07 pb)
13th Korir (27:20 pb)
15th Mead (27:32 pb)#London2017 https://t.co/8YMo7IrsLu

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 4, 2017

Kipchirchir's mark made him the third-fastest American of all time over 10K, just behind Galen Rupp and Chris Solinsky, and Korir is No. 6 all-time with his 27:20 performance.

Race leader splits:

1Ks	Overall Split	1K Split
1000	2:39	2:39
2000	5:25	2:46
3000	8:09	2:44
4000	10:53	2:44
5000	13:33	2:40
6000	16:17	2:44
7000	19:02	2:45
8000	21:40	2:38
9000	24:20	2:40
10000	26:49	2:29
1600s	Overall Split	1600 Split
1600	4:20	4:20
3200	8:41	4:21
4800	13:03	4:22
6400	17:23	4:20
8000	21:40	4:17
9600	25:54	4:14
Last 1600	Overall Split	400 Split
400	1:03	1:03
800	2:07	1:04
1200	3:09	1:02
1600	4:04	0:55

Full results:

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