The men's 5,000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 25 and 28. The winning margin was 0.20 seconds.
The final witnessed an epic clash between two track greats from different generations: in his final competitive international race, 1500m champion and track legend Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and 10,000m Olympic champion, world record holder at the distance and rising star 21-year-old Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. The race had a preview at the World Championships a year earlier. There the medalists were barely separated, but the young World Junior record holder Eliud Kipchoge upset the stars by taking gold after El Guerrouj had tried to break away on the final lap.
Here Bekele took an early lead, but instead chose not to push the pace. That duty fell onto Kipchoge, who had watched from behind the year before. Here, El Guerrouj spent most of the race watching from several places behind the lead. As the last lap began, El Guerrouj moved toward the front. Bekele challenged Kipchoge with 200 metres to go. It was a shoulder to shoulder all out sprint battle as Kipchoge refused to let Bekele by, but he couldn't hold him off. Bekele broke out at a lead of several metres. El Guerrouj first ran down Kipchoge, then overhauled the Ethiopian in the final strides to win by just two tenths of a second. With this, El Guerrouj set a historic milestone as the first ever athlete to strike a distance double (1500–5000) since Paavo Nurmi did so in 1924, denying Bekele a chance to do the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m double – which he would ultimately win four years later in Beijing.
Records Prior to the competition, the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:
No new records were set during the competition.
Qualification The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 5000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 13:21.50 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 13:25.40 or faster could be entered.
Schedule All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) Date Time RoundWednesday, 25 August 2004 19:50 Round 1Saturday, 28 August 2004 21:05 Final
Results
Round 1 Qualification rule: The first five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next five fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.
Heat 1 Rank Name Nationality Result Notes1 Kenenisa Bekele 13:21.16Q2 Gebregziabher Gebremariam 13:21.20Q3 Hicham El Guerrouj 13:21.87Q4 Craig Mottram 13:21.88Q5 Abraham Chebii 13:22.30Q6 Hicham Bellani 13:22.64q7 Alistair Ian Cragg 13:23.01q8 Samir Moussaoui 13:24.98q9 Sultan Khamis Zaman 13:26.5210 John Mayock 13:26.8111 Günther Weidlinger 13:29.3212 Christian Belz 13:29.5913 Alejandro Suárez 13:35.3214 Jonathon Riley 13:38.7915 Mohammed Abdelhak Zakaria 13:42.0416 Monder Rizki 14:03.5817 Serhiy Lebid 14:10.23 Carlos García
Heat 2 Rank Name Nationality Result Notes1 Ali Saidi Sief 13:18.94Q2 Eliud Kipchoge 13:19.01Q3 Dejene Berhanu 13:19.42Q4 John Kibowen 13:19.65Q5 Abderrahim Goumri 13:20.03Q6 Tim Broe 13:20.29q7 Zersenay Tadese 13:22.17q8 Samson Kiflemariam 13:26.979 Roberto García 13:27.7110 Khoudir Aggoune 13:29.3711 Fabiano Joseph Naasi 13:31.8912 Marius Bakken 13:36.3813 Freddy González 13:42.4414 Tom Compernolle 13:43.4415 Mark Carroll 13:46.8116 Carles Castillejo 13:49.1617 Michael Aish 13:50.0018 Rajendra Bahadur Bhandari 14:04.89NR
Final
Rank Name Nationality Result Notes Hicham El Guerrouj 13:14.39 Kenenisa Bekele 13:14.59 Eliud Kipchoge 13:15.104 Gebregziabher Gebremariam 13:15.355 Dejene Berhanu 13:16.926 John Kibowen 13:18.247 Zersenay Tadese 13:24.318 Craig Mottram 13:25.709 Hicham Bellani 13:31.8110 Ali Saidi Sief 13:32.5711 Tim Broe 13:33.0612 Alistair Ian Cragg 13:43.0613 Abderrahim Goumri 13:47.2714 Samir Moussaoui 14:02.01 Abraham Chebii
References
External links IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage