Mo Farah crosses the finish line at the European Championships in Helsinki. Photograph: John Giles/PA

Mo Farah retained his European Championships 5,000m title with a comfortable victory in Finland.

The Newham & Essex Beagles star, who took gold at last year’s World Championships, won in a time of 13 minutes 29.91 seconds.

The 29-year-old ran in Helsinki after pulling out of the 1,500m final at last weekend’s Olympic trials in Birmingham as he chases gold at the London Games.

Germany’s Arne Gabiuis was second in 13:31.83, followed by Turkey’s Polat Kemboi Arikan in 13:32.63.

The Helsinki race was run at a fairly slow speed - Farah’s winning time of 13:29.91 was more than half-a-minute slower than his personal best at the distance, and considerably slower than Kenenisa Bekele’s world record time of 12:37.35.

Bekele won the gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 with a time of 12:57.82.

Farah, who became the first man in the 78-year history of the European Championships to retain his 5,000m title, has one more pre-Olympic race, a 5,000m at Crystal Palace on July 13.