Even now, as Sir Mo Farah hurtles towards his 35th birthday and the finale of the greatest career in British athletics’ history, he retains a stunning capacity to find a way – a way to defy his opponents, a way to defy critics and, most of all, a way to defy Father Time.

As the bell sounded for the final lap of a stormy and enthralling 10,000m final a group of brilliant young East Africans were on his shoulder, poised to strike. They included the hugely talented 20-year-old Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei and two Kenyans in their mid-20s, Paul Tanui and Bedan Muchuri. At that moment Farah stumbled and nearly tripped. He still refused to go down or lose his nerve. Afterwards he needed stitches on a cut on his left leg, which was bandaged.

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Even around the final bend they were lurking, sensing blood. Instead, urged on by a delirious 56,000 crowd, Farah found his familiar full-throttled sprint finish to claim yet another world championship gold medal in 26min 49.51sec, – his fastest time for six years – with Cheptegei second and Tanui third.

He admitted afterwards it was the greatest performance of his career. “They went so hard,” he said. “I knew it would be tough and I had to believe in my sprint finish. But it was one of the toughest races of my life. The guys gave it to me.”

This victory means Farah now has an unprecedented 10 consecutive global track distance titles. To put that into context, Haile Gebrselassie won six in a row at 10,000m and Kenenisa Bekele’s run of consecutive 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic and world titles ended at four. And, among all the greats in track and field history, only Usain Bolt has more world and Olympic medals.

Even at 34 there seems no diminishing of his powers. To Farah the normal rules of just do not apply. Earlier, when the big screen in the stadium showed him jogging on the warm-up track, wearing a oversized white bobble hat and breezily grinning at a team-mate,, the crowd erupted into cheers. But that was nothing compared with the electric welcome that greeted him when he stepped on to the track an hour later.

At that point it was almost five years to the minute since his golden 10,000m victory on London 2012’s Super Saturday – a victory that turned him into an overnight hero. In the United States, where Farah is based, a five-year anniversary is celebrated with silverware. But there was no way he was going to settle for anything other than gold.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mo Farah stumbles at the front of the race. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

As he glared across the track he saw some familiar rivals: including Geoffrey Kamworor, the reigning world cross-country champion and world silver medallist and Tanui, the Olympic 10,000m silver medallist. As always he looked them up and down, throwing his fists like a boxer as he probed for any weaknesses.

As Neil Black, British Athletics’ performance director, likes to explain: “When Mo stands on the start line, he believes he can run the last 400m faster than anyone in that race. He believes if he had to fight anyone there, he could kick the shit out of them.”

There were also the Ethiopians Abadi Hadis and Jemal Yimer, the proud holders of the fastest times in the world this year, that Farah was keeping an eye on. Hadis, in particular, had clearly kicked on from his 15th in Rio, having placed third at the World Cross Country Championships .

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Yet Farah knew he had the two most valuable trump cards in the race: not only the fastest time in the field but a devilish sprint finish that none of his opponents could match. The only realistic worry was whether he might suddenly get old overnight – or his rivals interrupt his rhythm.

Certainly they could not expect that the recent negative headlines that have surrounded Farah following the leak of some of his athlete biological passport data by the Russian hackers Fancy Bears last month would affect him. Last year he had to fend off questions about his relationship with the controversial coach Jama Aden, who was arrested after the blood boosting drug EPO was found in the hotel where he was staying in Spain – yet he still won double gold at the Rio Olympics. In 2015 he had to shrug off allegations made against his coach Alberto Salazar made by the BBC’s Panorama programme and again left a major championships with two gold medals. Others might have got distracted. Farah simply developed tunnel vision.

But he had to dig deeper than ever before to win. So many times in the past Farah’s opponents have sat back and turned a 10,000m race into a 600m sprint. And time and time again they have seen him destroy them on the last lap. This time they ganged up on Farah, desperate not to relive their Groundhog Day again. From the gun Cheptegei immediately hit the front with Kamworor right behind him.

The first 1,000m came and went in 2:39 – faster than usual for a major championships. Yet Farah was unmoved and was content to sit in 16th place, 20 metres behind the lead, waiting for them to come back to him.

It was a choppy race, with plenty of surges in speed interspersed with slower moments. Yet Farah was never allowed to feel comfortable. At one point, halfway in, Farah pushed into the lead – only for the Kenyans to throw in a 63-second lap to move him back to 11th. From a long way out Farah knew this was not going to be a procession but a real race.

But he was helped by the crowd who urged him on with every step. All evening they had wildly cheered the sight of every British vest. But now they were clapping and stomping and urging Farah on, creating a giant wall of noise.

Repeatedly Farah was confronted by traffic and tangled with Kenyan legs. With three laps left the pack was down to nine and everyone appeared flat out. Yet still the intensity increased. Farah knew that every time the lap counter ticked down his greatest strengths were increasingly coming into play. And when the bell sounded, he kicked hard again. Just over 50 seconds later he crossed the line and, once again, enjoyed sweet delirium.