The women's 5000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 20 and 23.

The final started out slowly and dismally, as none of the entrants wanted to take the lead. With the tightly packed field passing through the 400 metres, many runners started to fall behind and could not handle the pace set by early leaders Sun Yingjie and Xing Huina. Approaching to the halfway mark of the race, Turkey's world-record holder Elvan Abeylegesse surpassed the Chinese duo to charge into the lead and the pace began to accelerate quickly. Ethiopia's Meseret Defar and Kenya's Isabella Ochichi came immediately to the front of the pack, keeping an eye on the leader. With only three laps to go, Abeylegesse struggled to maintain her pace until she finally faded on the backstretch, leaving Defar and Ochichi to exchange the leading duties throughout the race and battle out for the gold. Moments after the bell, Ochichi continued to lead from the rest of the field, but Defar patiently passed her with only 200 metres to go, and then stormed away to her first Olympic title, finishing at 14:45.65. Ochichi had nothing left to respond with, but came through behind her to get the silver, while Defar's teammate Tirunesh Dibaba overhauled the weary Abeylegesse to hold on for the bronze.

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 women's 5000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 15:08.70 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 15:20.45 or faster could be entered.

Schedule All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2) Date Time RoundFriday, 20 August 2004 23:20 Round 1Monday, 23 August 2004 22:00 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 Time Notes 1 Tirunesh Dibaba 15:00.66 Q 2 Sentayehu Ejigu 15:01.31 Q 3 Yelena Zadorozhnaya 15:01.77 Q 4 Liliya Shobukhova 15:01.86 Q 5 Edith Masai 15:01.92 Q 6 Irina Mikitenko 15:02.16 q 7 Sun Yingjie 15:03.00 q, SB 8 Émilie Mondor 15:20.15 9 Marla Runyan 15:24.88 10 Tezeta Sürekli 15:26.64 11 Kim Smith 15:31.80 12 Dorcus Inzikuru 15:38.59 13 Shayne Culpepper 15:40.02 14 Ebru Kavaklıoğlu 15:52.39 15 Maria McCambridge 15:57.42 16 Souad Aït Salem 16:02.10 17 Dulce María Rodríguez 16:08.07 18 Zainab Bakkour 17:18.66 19 Francine Niyonizigiye 17:21.27 Elizabeth Zaragoza

Heat 2 Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Meseret Defar 14:52.39 Q 2 Elvan Abeylegesse 14:54.80 Q 3 Joanne Pavey 14:55.45 Q 4 Isabella Ochichi 14:55.69 Q 5 Xing Huina 14:56.01 Q, PB 6 Margaret Maury 14:56.79 q, PB 7 Sonia O'Sullivan 14:59.61 q 8 Gulnara Samitova 15:05.78 q 9 Jane Wanjiku 15:14.57 10 Kirsi Valasti 15:33.78 11 Shalane Flanagan 15:34.63 12 Maria Protopappa 15:35.07 13 Volha Krautsova 15:44.01 14 Restituta Joseph 15:45.11 15 Catherine Chikwakwa 15:46.17 16 Courtney Babcock 15:47.35 17 Krisztina Papp 15:58.44 18 Inês Monteiro 16:03.75 19 Supriyati Sutono 16:34.14 SB 20 Nebiat Habtemariam 16:49.01 21 Inés Melchor 17:08.07

Final

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Meseret Defar 14:45.65 Isabella Ochichi 14:48.19 Tirunesh Dibaba 14:51.83 Yelena Zadorozhnaya 14:55.52 Joanne Pavey 14:57.87 Gulnara Samitova 15:02.30 Irina Mikitenko 15:03.36 Sun Yingjie 15:07.23 Xing Huina 15:07.41 10 Sentayehu Ejigu 15:09.55 11 Margaret Maury 15:09.77 12 Elvan Abeylegesse 15:12.64 13 Liliya Shobukhova 15:15.64 14 Sonia O'Sullivan 16:20.90 Edith Masai

References

External links IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage