The women's 5000 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on 23 and 26 August 2023.
The winning margin was 0.23 seconds which as of 2024 is the narrowest winning margin in the women's 5,000 metres at these championships.
Summary
As temperatures rose in Budapest, meet officials moved the heats from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening. Still, with the heats being conducted in the heat of 31°C (88°F) temperatures, the elite athletes had little interest in running a hard race except World U20 double Champion Agate Caune. In the first heat, the 19 year old captured the crowd by taking the pace out. After getting jostled in a tight slow moving pack for the first 200 metres, she stepped to the side and around the pack. Quickly, she separated from the pack, clicking off 70 second laps, while the peloton was doing more relaxed 73s. By the ninth lap, she had a 23 second, about 150 metre, advantage. Slowly the peloton began to reel in the rebellious teenager as the strain began to show on her face. 600 metres from the finish, 10,000 metre gold medalist Gudaf Tsegay started an extended kick for home. Returning silver medalist Beatrice Chebet and 2019 silver medalist Margaret Kipkemboi followed her and the pack stretched out, the gap to Caune was shrinking. She eventually was caught but kept her wits about her. Caune continued on to finish in fourth place qualifying her for the finals with a new personal best. In the second heat, they ran about 25 seconds faster, with the two favorites; new world record holder Faith Kipyegon and triple threat Olympic Champion Sifan Hassan sprinting it out to satisfy their competitive juices. Hassan won the heat by .02 seconds.
With all the drama just to qualify for the final, could the final live up? Even before the start, Caune did not appear due to a pelvic injury. With new rules in place, she was replaced at the last minute by the #17 qualifier Francine Niyomukunzi. The race started off with Tsegay moving out to a 65-second first lap opening up a gap. Then she backed off the accelerator, letting Ejgayehu Taye take the pace down to 75. Then she sped up to a 70 as both the Ethiopian and Kenyan teams dominated the front, then slowed down to 77. Kipyegon came forward to guide the pace to the slower speeds. Lilian Kasait Rengeruk took a couple of laps until Tsegay moved up to the 71 and a couple of 70-second laps. Through all these maneuvers, 14 women were still in contact with the lead, waiting. With a lap and a half to home, it was racing time. Kipyegon hit the front. Hassan moved up from mid-pack to Kipyegon's shoulder. The pace was quickening but only a few were dropping off the back. From 300 to 200 to go, they sped into a controlled sprint. Tsegay couldn't keep up. A gap appeared with Kipyegon, Hassan, and Chebet as the likely medalists. All three sprinted for home but the order and spacing didn't change. 13 women finished in less than 7 and a half seconds. Kipyegon got her double. After falling in the 10,000 finish, Hassan is leaving with medals in her other two events, anticipating running the Chicago Marathon in just 6 weeks.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record14:05.20Paris, France9 June 2023Championship record14:26.72Doha, Qatar5 October 2019World Leading14:05.20Paris, France9 June 2023African Record14:05.20Paris, France9 June 2023Asian Record14:28.09Shanghai, China23 October 1997North, Central American and Caribbean record14:19.45London, United Kingdom23 July 2023South American Record14:47.76Walnut, United States6 May 2023European Record14:13.42London, United Kingdom23 July 2023Oceanian record14:39.89New York, United States27 February 2009
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 14:57.00.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC +2), was as follows:
Date Time Round23 August 19:02 Heats26 August 20:50 Final
Results
Heats
First 8 of each heat (Q) qualified to the final.
Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 Sifan Hassan 14:32.29 Q 2 2 Faith Kipyegon 14:32.31 Q 3 2 Ejgayehu Taye 14:33.23 Q 4 2 Freweyni Hailu 14:34.16 Q 5 2 Lilian Kasait Rengeruk 14:36.61 Q 6 2 Nozomi Tanaka 14:37.98 Q, 7 2 Nadia Battocletti 14:41.78 Q 8 2 Laura Galván 14:43.94 Q, 9 1 Beatrice Chebet 14:57.70 Q 10 1 Gudaf Tsegay 14:57.72 Q 11 1 Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi 15:00.10 Q 12 1 Agate Caune 15:00.48 WD, 13 1 Elise Cranny 15:01.53 Q 14 1 Medina Eisa 15:03.07 Q 15 1 Alicia Monson 15:03.35 Q 16 1 Maureen Koster 15:05.13 Q 17 1 Francine Niyomukunzi 15:05.24 Q 18 2 Natosha Rogers 15:06.58 19 1 Rose Davies 15:07.93 20 1 Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal 15:08.96 21 1 Ririka Hironaka 15:11.16 22 2 Joselyn Daniely Brea 15:11.16 23 2 Amy-Eloise Markovc 15:13.66 24 2 Camilla Richardsson 15:13.84 25 1 Sarah Chelangat 15:14.89 26 2 Jessica Hull 15:15.89 27 1 Megan Keith 15:21.94 28 1 Julie-Anne Staehli 15:24.09 29 2 Mariana Machado 15:28.97 30 1 Viktória Wagner-Gyürkés 15:29.42 31 1 Ludovica Cavalli 15:32.95 32 2 Anjelina Nadai Lohalith 15:35.25 33 2 Prisca Chesang 15:37.02 34 1 Lauren Ryan 15:40.23 35 1 Briana Scott 15:42.56 36 2 15:54.30 37 2 Erin Teschuk 15:56.54 38 1 Yuma Yamamoto 16:05.57 2 Fedra Aldana Luna Sambran 2 Sarah Lahti
Final The final was started on 26 August at 20:50.
Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Faith Kipyegon 14:53.88 Sifan Hassan 14:54.11 Beatrice Chebet 14:54.33 4 Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi 14:56.62 5 Ejgayehu Taye 14:56.85 6 Medina Eisa 14:58.23 7 Freweyni Hailu 14:58.31 8 Nozomi Tanaka 14:58.99 9 Elise Cranny 14:59.22 10 Laura Galván 14:59.32 10 Lilian Kasait Rengeruk 14:59.32 12 Maureen Koster 15:00.78 13 Gudaf Tsegay 15:01.13 14 Alicia Monson 15:04.08 15 Francine Niyomukunzi 15:15.01 16 Nadia Battocletti 15:27.86
References