The men's 5000 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 8–11 August. In a tactical, slow race, the gold medal was won by 0.32 seconds by reigning World champion Mo Farah of host Great Britain, completing a distance double having won the 10,000 metres a week earlier. Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel took silver, with Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa of Kenya in bronze position.

Summary

The final race started out slowly, the first lap in 74.1 and only that fast because Hayle Ibrahimov accelerated the last 100. The field continued running splits in the 70s, Lopez Lomong leading through 2000 in a pedestrian 5:56.7. In the seventh lap Yenew Alamirew moved to the front and accelerated the pace, the next several laps down below 62, Mo Farah the only one to break up the Ethiopian team at the front. With 700 to go, Farah took the lead, his training partner Galen Rupp joining him with 500 to go, as the rest of the field jostling to be in position to sprint. First Hagos Gebrhiwet challenged, then disappeared. Down the backstretch, Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa challenged, with Abdalaati Iguider immediately behind. Dejen Gebremeskel, Bernard Lagat and Isiah Kiplangat Koech packing up around the final turn. At the head of the stretch, Koech contacted Lagat as he was just coming clear to sprint, Lagat stumbling. Meanwhile, Farah was accelerating ahead of Longosiwa, who couldn't handle the speed. Gebremeskel went around the outside with Lagat's delayed sprint unable to catch Longosiwa. The winning time was more than 15 seconds slower than the slowest time in qualifying.

Competition format

The Men's 5000m competition consisted of heats (Round 1) and a Final. A total of fifteen competitors qualified for the Final from the heats.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World record12:37.35Hengelo, Netherlands31 May 2004Olympic record12:57.82Beijing, China23 August 20082012 World leading12:46.81Paris (Saint-Denis), France6 July 2012

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1) Date Time RoundWednesday, 8 August 2012 10:45Round 1Saturday, 11 August 2012 19:30Finals

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 5 of each heat (Q) plus the 5 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Hayle Ibrahimov 13:25.23 Q Isiah Kiplangat Koech 13:25.64 Q Mo Farah 13:26.00 Q Lopez Lomong 13:26.16 Q Hagos Gebrhiwet 13:26.16 Q Edwin Cheruiyot Soi 13:27.06 Arne Gabius 13:28.01 Daniele Meucci 13:28.71 Moukheld Al-Outaibi 13:31.47 10 Bilisuma Shugi 13:31.84 11 Yuki Sato 13:38.22 12 David McNeill 13:45.88 13 Olivier Irabaruta 13:46.25 14 Aziz Lahbabi 13:47.57 15 Amanuel Mesel 13:48.13 SB 16 Collis Birmingham 13:50.39 17 Serhiy Lebid 13:53.15 18 Geofrey Kusuro 13:59.74 SB 19 Hussain Jamaan Alhamdah 14:00.43 20 Rene Herrera 14:44.11 PB Teklemariam Medhin Hassan Hirt *

Hassan Hirt originally finished 11th in a time of 13:35.36, but was later disqualified after testing positive for EPO.

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Dejen Gebremeskel 13:15.15 Q Yenew Alamirew 13:15.39 Q Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa 13:15.41 Q Bernard Lagat 13:15.45 Q Abdalaati Iguider 13:15.49 Q Galen Rupp 13:17.56 q Moses Ndiema Kipsiro 13:17.68 q Cameron Levins 13:18.29 q, PB Juan Luis Barrios 13:21.01 q 10 Mumin Gala 13:21.21 q, SB 11 Abrar Osman Adem 13:24.40 12 Nick McCormick 13:25.70 13 Polat Kemboi Arikan 13:27.21 14 Rabah Aboud 13:28.38 15 Abraham Kiplimo 13:31.57 16 Craig Mottram 13:40.24 17 Alistair Ian Cragg 13:47.01 18 Soufiyan Bouqantar 13:47.63 19 Javier Carriqueo 13:57.07 SB 20 Abdullah Abdulaziz Aljoud 14:11.12 21 Ruben Sança 14:35.19

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Mo Farah 13:41.66 Dejen Gebremeskel 13:41.98 Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa 13:42.36 4 Bernard Lagat 13:42.99 5 Isiah Kiplangat Koech 13:43.83 6 Abdalaati Iguider 13:44.19 7 Galen Rupp 13:45.04 8 Juan Luis Barrios 13:45.30 9 Hayle Ibrahimov 13:45.37 10 Lopez Lomong 13:48.19 11 Hagos Gebrhiwet 13:49.59 12 Yenew Alamirew 13:49.68 13 Mumin Gala 13:50.26 14 Cameron Levins 13:51.87 15 Moses Ndiema Kipsiro 13:52.25

Notes: Q- Qualified by place q - Qualified by performance (time) PB - Personal Best NR - National Record SB - Seasonal Best DQ - DisQualified DNS - Did Not Start DNF - Did Not Finish

References