MO FARAH last night became the first British man to win the European 10,000 metres title, turning on a display of supreme confidence, bordering even on arrogance, as he took gold in 28 minutes 24.99 seconds ahead of teammate Chris Thompson.

The Somalia-born 27-yearold finally hit the front in a slow race with five laps to go, but then beckoned Spain’s Ayad Lamdassem through to take up the pace with just over three laps remaining.

A lap later, Farah then remarkably turned round to encourage Thompson, who was engaged in a battle with Italy’s Daniele Meucci some 30m behind.

And the gambit paid massive dividends as Farah stormed clear with 350m to go and Thompson produced a rousing finish to overhaul Lamdassem and just hold off Meucci on the line, both athletes given the same time of 28mins 27.33secs.

A delighted Farah said: ‘‘That was amazing. One-two has never been done before and it just feels so great to be here. It’s so great to see this man (Thompson) back. To win with him second is the best result I could have expected.’’ Thompson, who beat Farah to 5,000m gold in the European Under-23 championship seven years ago but has suffered badly with injuries since, added: ‘‘That was awesome.

This means so much more than the one-two all those years ago.

‘‘This is the greatest British endurance runner ever (pointing at Farah) – I’m second best! Coming here and winning the silver was my gold and I am so proud to do it behind this man. It’s amazing, it is so good to be back.

‘‘I’m speechless. It was a rollercoaster for all the years I have been running but everything came perfect for this race, for the first time this season.’’ Four years ago in Gothenburg Britain won just one gold medal in the entire championships, claiming the men’s 4x100m relay on the final day of competition, with Farah pipped to gold in the 5,000m.

But Farah and Thompson were always expected to deliver in Barcelona, coming into the race separated by less than a second this year but more than 30 seconds quicker than anyone else in the field.

‘‘We were ranked one and two and it’s not easy to follow that up, you have to concentrate, do the right tactics,’’ added Farah. ‘‘I was thinking I’m not going to let the Spanish guy sit on me, I just said ’I can sprint as well, you get on with it’ and went behind him.

‘‘Then I was thinking there was too much of a gap between second and third, I was thinking ’Come on Chris, close the gap.’’’ Thompson added: ‘‘I saw him gesture and thought I’m happy he’d won and noone was making a move for third. So I fixed my eyes on Mo. I thought we could still come first and second.’’ Earlier in the evening, world championship bronze medallist Jenny Meadows and the in-form Jemma Simpson also reached Friday’s final of the 800m, but team-mate Marilyn Okoro missed out after finishing fourth in her heat.

Meadows proved she has fully recovered from recent calf and Achilles problems to clock 1:58.90, just one hundredth of a second slower than both her seasonal best and the fastest qualifier, Russia’s Svetlana Klyuka.

Simpson, fresh off a personal best and second fastest time in Europe this year in Monte Carlo five days ago, was equally impressive in winning her heat in 1:59.18.

Meadows said: ‘‘I’m really relieved to get to the final, I hate the first round.

The preparation camp did me the world of good. I really feel like I left my (injury) troubles back at home and that run has proved to me I am in great shape.’’