London 2012 Olympic athletics: Mo Farah qualifies for 5,000m final with third place finish in heat

OLYMPIC champion Mo Farah qualified for the final of the 5,000m — finishing third in his heat.

Farah — who won the 10,000m title on Saturday night — had to finish in the top five in his heat and was made to work with a 54-sec final lap as he finished in 13mins 26secs.

Heat one’s winner was Hayle Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan in 13mins 25.23 with Isiah Kipkangat Koech just ahead of Farah.

The 29 year-old admitted he’d hoped for a slightly slower heat.

He said: “That was pretty good, I was a bit tired today but it’s all good. I got good support I’m happy with where I am now, I’ve got a couple of days to recover.

“I’m going to go out and give 110 per cent obviously it would have been nice to run a lot slower than that after the 10k in the heat but hopefully I’ll recover.”

There was agony for Briton Nick McCormick through as he bowed out after finishing 12th in heat two — despite running faster than Farah with 13mins 25.70secs.