The men's 5000 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 3 and 6 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. Approximately 45 athletes competed; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 42 qualifying through time or ranking (6 universality places were used in 2016). The winning margin was 0.46 seconds.
Summary After setting the world record in what was practically a time trial in 2020, Joshua Cheptegei was the clear favorite. Mo Farah, the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic champion, had failed to meet the Olympic qualifying standard. Bronze medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet also did not return, but silver medalist Paul Chelimo was back for another go. None of the Ethiopian medalists from the World Championships attended, but the Canadian World Championship bronze medalist, Mohammed Ahmed, did take part. A further potential contendor was the find of the season, Mohamed Katir, who ran historic times in the 1500, 3000 and 5000 in the lead-up to the Olympics.
From the start of the final, Cheptegei took the lead, marked by Milkesa Mengesha while several other contenders took their looks at the leader. After two laps, Jacob Kiplimo worked his way through the pack and Cheptegei gave way to his teammate. Cheptegei dropped back a few places while Chelimo took Kiplimo seriously and moved into marking position just ahead of Mengesha. The lead group of Kiplimo, Chelimo, Mengesha, Nicholas Kimeli and Cheptegei stayed in order for four laps, while the rest of the field was in single file behind them. Half way through the race, Kiplimo's pace slowed slightly and Cheptegei moved back up to the front to keep pushing. After another lap, the pack began to bunch up again, half the field moving into lane 2 to have room to maneuver, Kimeli immediately to Cheptegei's right side. After a half lap to think about it, Kimeli moved ahead, then marked by Mengesha. Just before three laps to go, Chelimo ran around the crowd to take the lead, which only lasted for half a lap before Kimeli and Mengesha restored order. The lead group was down to 9, the runners packed so tight there was some jostling and pushing, Chelimo losing his balance but staying on his feet. Out of the jostling, Cheptegei was back on point with 500m to go. Kimeli made a rush at the bell to be second over the line ahead of Chelimo. The front six had dropped the others, Kiplimo, Ahmed and Birhanu Balew. Balew fell off on the backstretch, and as Chelimo and Ahmed cued up behind Kimeli, Kiplimo was off the back in the turn. Kimeli went wide off the turn, possibly thinking he can run down Cheptegei. Chelimo saw the opportunity and passed on the inside, Ahmed on his heels. Then Ahmed passed Chelimo on the inside and went off in chase of Cheptegei. But there was not enough real estate before Cheptegei crossed the finish line, followed by Ahmed. Behind them, Kimeli came back on Chelimo. Both were racing side by side for the bronze. First Kimeli had a few inches, then Chelimo regained the edge. Five metres out from the finish, the exhausted Chelimo stumbled, the quick steps causing him to get ahead of Kimeli. He managed two more steps falling forward across the line before crashing to the track, Chelimo's off balance angle crossing the line the difference to give him the bronze.
Background This was the 25th time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since 1912.
Qualification
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 5000 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 13:13.50. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 42 is reached.
The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets were eligible for qualifying. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.
NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 5000 metres.
Men's 5000 m Entry number: 42. 4 withdrew after qualification ended, 2 universality places.
Qualification standardNo. of athletes NOC Nominated athletesEntry standard – 13:13.503 Mohammed AhmedLuc BruchetJustyn Knight3 Nibret MelakMilkesa MengeshaGetnet Wale3 Samuel CheboleDaniel EbenyoNicholas Kimeli3 Oscar ChelimoJoshua CheptegeiJacob Kiplimo3 Paul ChelimoGrant FisherWoody Kincaid2 David McNeillPatrick Tiernan2 Birhanu BalewDawit Fikadu2 Jimmy GressierHugo Hay2 Andrew ButchartMarc Scott0 Jakob Ingebrigtsen1 Isaac Kimeli1 Luis Grijalva1 Yemaneberhan Crippa1 Lesiba Precious Mashele1 Mohamed KatirWorld ranking2 Yuta BandoHiroki Matsueda1 Soufiyan BouqantarZouhair Talbi1 Jonas RaessJulien Wanders1 Morgan McDonald1 Robin Hendrix1 Mohamed Mohumed1 Mike Foppen1 Narve Gilje Nordås0 Carlos MayoUniversality Places1 Nursultan Keneshbekov1 Abidine Abidine Invitational Places1 Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed Total 40
Competition format The event continued to use the two-round format introduced in 2012.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows:
Area Time (s) Athlete Nation Africa 12:35.36 Joshua Cheptegei Asia 12:51.96 Albert Rop Europe 12:48.45 Jakob Ingebrigtsen North, Central America and Caribbean 12:47.20 Mohammed Ahmed Oceania 12:55.76 Craig Mottram South America 13:19.43 Marilson dos Santos
The following national records were established during the competition:
Country Athlete Round Time Notes Guatemala Final 13:10.09
Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
The men's 5000 metres took place over two separate days.
Date Time Round Tuesday, 3 August 2021 19:00 Round 1 Friday, 6 August 2021 19:50 Final
Results Round 1 Qualification Rules: First 5 in each heat (Q) and the next 5 fastest (q) advance to the Final.
Heat 1 RankAthleteNationTimeNotes1 Nicholas Kimeli 13:38.872 Mohammed Ahmed 13:38.963 Woody Kincaid 13:39.044 Oscar Chelimo 13:39.075 Birhanu Balew 13:39.426 Marc Scott 13:39.617 Hugo Hay 13:39.95 8 David McNeill 13:39.979 Getnet Wale 13:41.1310 Daniel Ebenyo 13:41.64 11 Jonas Raess 13:43.5212 Soufiyan Bouqantar 13:43.9713 Lucas Bruchet 13:44.0814 Nibret Melak 13:45.8115 Yemaneberhan Crippa 13:47.1216 Robin Hendrix 13:58.3717 Yuta Bando 14:05.8018 Nursultan Keneshbekov 14:07.7919 Abidine Abidine 14:54.80 Mike Foppen
Heat 2 RankAthleteNationTimeNotes1 Mohamed Katir 13:30.102 Paul Chelimo 13:30.153 Justyn Knight 13:30.224 Jacob Kiplimo 13:30.405 Joshua Cheptegei 13:30.616 Milkesa Mengesha 13:31.137 Andrew Butchart 13:31.238 Grant Fisher 13:31.809 Jimmy Gressier 13:33.4710 Luis Grijalva 13:34.1111 Morgan McDonald 13:37.3612 Narve Gilje Nordås 13:41.8213 Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed 13:42.9814 Dawit Fikadu 13:44.03, 15 Lesiba Precious Mashele 13:48.2516 Mohamed Mohumed 13:50.46 17 Isaac Kimeli 13:57.3618 Hiroki Matsueda 14:15.54 Samwel Masai Patrick Tiernan
Final Source:
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Joshua Cheptegei 12:58.15 Mohammed Ahmed 12:58.61 Paul Chelimo 12:59.05 4 Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli 12:59.17 5 Jacob Kiplimo 13:02.40 6 Birhanu Balew 13:03.20 7 Justyn Knight 13:04.38 8 Mohamed Katir 13:06.60 9 Grant Fisher 13:08.40 10 Milkesa Mengesha 13:08.50 11 Andrew Butchart 13:09.97 12 Luis Grijalva 13:10.09 13 Jimmy Gressier 13:11.33 14 Woody Kincaid 13:17.20 15 Dawit Fikadu 13:20.24 16 Oscar Chelimo 13:44.45
References