1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 5000 metres

These are the official results of the men's 5000 metres event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total of 39 participating athletes, with three qualifying heats, two semi-finals and the final held on Sunday 14 August 1983.World Athletics Statistics HandBook Oregon 2022. World Athletics (2013). Edited by Mark Butler. Retrieved on 2022-07-09.

Records Existing records at the start of the event. World Record13:00.41Oslo, NorwayJuly 7, 1982Championship RecordNew event

Results Qualifying heats The qualifying heats took place on 10 August, with the 39 athletes involved being split into 3 heats. The first 8 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 6 fastest ( q ) qualified for the semifinals.

Heat 1 Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1Markus Ryffel13:43.36Q, 2Wodajo Bulti13:43.53Q3Eamonn Martin13:43.57Q4Thomas Wessinghage13:43.66Q5Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk13:43.78Q6Salvatore Antibo13:44.05Q7Charles Cheruiyot13:44.43Q8Doug Padilla13:44.71Q9Filippos Filippou13:45.24q10Abderrazak Bounour13:57.93q11Justin Gloden14:26.02q12Mohamed Bakheet14:52.2613Ramón López15:10.29

Heat 2 Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1Paul Kipkoech14:18.73Q2Fethi Baccouche14:23.79Q3Julian Goater14:23.93Q4António Leitão14:28.63Q5Dmitriy Dmitriyev14:37.75Q6Ronald Lanzoni14:49.20Q7Werner Schildhauer14:49.22Q8Jim Hill14:58.21Q9Antoine Nivyobizi15:14.6010José Jaime Hernández15:29.8611Alden Morris18:06.35Christoph HerleMohamed Kedir

Heat 3 Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1Valeriy Abramov14:12.61Q2Seyoum Nigatu14:13.22Q3Dietmar Millonig14:13.65Q4Eamonn Coghlan14:13.80Q5Dave Clarke14:13.97Q6Jorge García14:14.57Q7Paul Williams14:15.10Q8Jim Spivey14:15.70Q9Ricardo Vera14:17.26q10Kenji Ide14:18.34q11Martti Vainio14:18.74q12Masini Situ-Kubanza Zaire (ZAI)15:02.26Hansjörg Kunze

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 12 August, with the 30 athletes involved being split into 2 heats. The first 5 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 5 fastest ( q ) qualified for the final.

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1Markus Ryffel13:32.34Q, 2Thomas Wessinghage13:32.37Q3Werner Schildhauer13:32.49Q4Dietmar Millonig13:32.86Q5Doug Padilla13:32.90Q6Paul Kipkoech13:33.33q7Julian Goater13:36.21q8Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk13:37.24q9Filippos Filippou13:40.8110Paul Williams13:50.3011Dave Clarke13:58.3712Seyoum Nigatu14:02.2313Kenji Ide14:04.9414Justin Gloden14:12.2515Ronald Lanzoni14:47.30

Heat 2 Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1Dmitriy Dmitriyev13:31.40Q, 2Eamonn Coghlan13:31.66Q3António Leitão13:32.33Q4Wodajo Bulti13:33.03Q5Salvatore Antibo13:33.12Q6Valeriy Abramov13:33.37q7Martti Vainio13:34.18q8Jim Hill13:38.569Jim Spivey13:43.1710Jorge García13:46.3611Eamonn Martin13:48.6012Charles Cheruiyot13:52.6113Abderrazak Bounour14:00.7814Fethi Baccouche14:19.6415Ricardo Vera14:20.20

Final As in most other major international championships, also this 5,000-metre final was mostly slow and tactical. The Soviet Union's Anatoliy Krokhmaliuk led at 1,000 metres in 2:43.30. During the second kilometre, he and his team mate Dmitriy Dmitriyev alternated in the lead, with Dmitriyev clocking 5:34.15 at 2,000 metres. One lap later, Britain's Julian Goater suddenly accelerated, but over 200 metres after the start of his surge, Dmitriyev caught him. Soon thereafter, Dmitriyev again took the lead, and clocked 8:19.52 at 3,000 metres. During the fourth kilometre, Dmitriyev, Ethiopia's Wodajo Bulti, and Switzerland's Markus Ryffel took turns leading the race. With over three laps left, Krokhmaliuk dropped from the lead group. Bulti took the lead for the second and the last time just before 4,000 metres, which he passed in 11:03.27. At the start of the third-last home straight, Dmitriyev accelerated past Bulti. West Germany's Thomas Wessinghage and Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan positioned themselves behind Dmitriyev and Bulti. With two laps left, twelve men were still in the lead group, with Goater and Italy's Salvatore Antibo having dropped from Dmitriyev's pace. On the second-last back straight, the Soviet Union's Valeriy Abramov lost contact with the lead group. Dmitriyev launched his final kick's decisive stage at 4,400 metres. Immediately Ryffel, Portugal's Antonio Leitao, and Austria's Dietmar Millonig dropped from Dmitriyev's pace. At the start of the second-last home straight, Dmitriyev was already sprinting about five metres ahead of Bulti. Later on that home straight, Wessinghage and Coghlan kicked past Bulti, and Coghlan passed Wessinghage. At 4,600 metres, Dmitriyev led in about 12:30. In other words, he had sprinted the second-last lap in about 57 seconds! Coghlan was running about six or seven metres behind this Soviet runner, with Wessinghage, Bulti, Finland's Martti Vainio, the United States' Doug Padilla, East Germany's Werner Schildhauer, and Kenya's Paul Kipkoech still in the lead group. To the surprise of many spectators, Wessinghage dropped from Coghlan's pace on the final lap's front bend. This astonishing event - Wessinghage was a world-class runner at both 1,500 and 5,000 metres - probably inspired Vainio to start his final kick, and to pass Bulti. Further back, Kipkoech dropped from Padilla's and Schildhauer's pace. Early on the final back straight, Coghlan easily caught the tiring Dmitriyev. Vainio kicked past the exhausted Wessinghage. At 4,800 metres, Dmitriyev and Coghlan were running about nine metres ahead of Vainio. On the final bend, Schildhauer passed Padilla and Wessinghage, and dashed after Vainio. Coghlan triumphantly raised his right hand, glanced at the worn out Dmitriyev, and then began his final sprint. By the start of the home straight, Coghlan had already stretched his lead over Dmitriyev to four metres. Vainio was sprinting ten metres behind the Irishman, while Schildhauer was kicking a couple of metres behind the Finn. On the final home straight, without even sprinting as fast as he could, Coghlan moved into a wide lead, crossing the finish line in 13:28.53. In other words, he had run the final 1,000 metres in 2:24.77! Schildhauer passed Vainio with about 25 metres left, and caught Dmitriyev over 10 metres later. The exhausted Soviet runner was no match for the fast-finishing East German. Vainio leaned forward, and lunged across the finish line, crossing it just 0.04 seconds before Dmitriyev. Two of the strongest pre-race favourites, Padilla and Wessinghage, had to settle for the fifth and sixth places, respectively. (The World Track and Field Championships / Yleisurheilun MM-kisat 1983, the Juoksija-lehti / Runner Magazine, Helsinki, Finland, 1983; another book on the IAAF World Championships 1983; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIy0Jpm9moE&t=510s Eamonn Coghlan - World Athletics Championship 5000m Gold, Helsinki 1983.)

The final took place on August 14.

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Eamonn Coghlan13:28.53Werner Schildhauer13:30.20Martti Vainio13:30.344Dmitriy Dmitriyev13:30.385Doug Padilla13:32.086Thomas Wessinghage13:32.467Wodajo Bulti13:34.038Dietmar Millonig13:36.089Paul Kipkoech13:37.4410António Leitão13:38.5511Valeriy Abramov13:39.8012Markus Ryffel13:39.9813Salvatore Antibo13:40.7614Julian Goater13:48.1315Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk14:00.27

References