The men's 5000 metres was the second-longest of the seven men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. It was held on 16 October and 18 October 1964. 54 athletes from 35 nations entered, with 6 not starting the first round. The first round was held on 16 October and the final on 18 October.
The world record holder Vladimir Kuts had retired five years earlier. Defending champion Murray Halberg didn't make the final. Halberg and Pyotr Bolotnikov had dominated the event the previous four years but neither was in the final. The top runner of the year was Bob Schul from the Compton Invitational. This was Kip Keino's first Olympic final, but he would gain fame four years later.
In the slow, strategic race held in a light rain on a muddy dirt track Michel Jazy was more of a 1500 meter runner and expected to be ready for a fast finish. He kept himself in the lead or close to the lead throughout. Schul found himself on the curb boxed in by a loping Keino who seemed to be marking the field on the outside of the pack that also included future world record holder Ron Clarke. With 600 metres to go Bill Dellinger made the first move coming around the entire pack and into the lead. At age 30, old for an amateur athlete in this era, Dellinger came out of retirement to make one last attempt after failing to make the Olympic final the previous two Olympiads. Dellinger's move was marked by Jazy as the pace quickened. Nikolay Dutov came around the entire pack to challenge Jazy and Dellinger. Shortly after the bell, Jazy decided to take off, jumping to the lead with Harald Norpoth coming from mid pack to become his closest pursuer 5 metres back as the field stretched out. A one speed runner, Clarke had no answer for the speedsters. With 300 to go, Schul came from fifth place to start picking off runners to get to Norpoth with 200 to go. Through the turn he passed Norpoth with Jazy constantly looking over his shoulder to check his pursuer. Jazy still had a two metres lead as they reached the final straight. But that lead disappeared rapidly as Schul sprinted by to take the gold medal. Jazy now watched Norpoth as he slowly edged by just before the finish. Given all he could, Jazy tried to maintain and glide across the finish line, but Dellinger, in full sprint, caught Jazy at the line to take the bronze medal. It took officials a half an hour to decide the bronze medalist.
Schul's victory was the first and only American victory in the event. Results
First round
The top three runners in each of the 4 heats advanced.
First round, heat 1
Place Athlete Nation Time 1 Michel Jazy 13:55.4 2 Bill Baillie 13:55.4 3 Stepan Baidiuk 14:00.2 4 Andrei Barabas 14:00.2 5 Anthony Cook 14:02.4 6 John Bryan Herring 14:07.2 7 Muharrem Dalkilic 14:12.0 8 Lutz Philipp 14:15.2 9 Bruce Kidd 14:21.8 10 Janos Pinter 14:41.0 11 Jean Randrianjatovo 15:50.4 — Pascal Mfyomi DNS Gaston Roelants DNS
First round, heat 2
Place Athlete Nation Time 1 Michael Edwin Wiggs 13:51.0 2 Bill Dellinger 13:52.2 3 Thor Helland 13:52.4 4 Lech Boguszewicz 13:52.8 5 Kęstutis Orentas 13:54.0 6 Eugene Allonsius 13:55.0 7 Jean Vaillant 14:05.8 8 Manfred Letzerich 14:06.2 9 Thomas O'Riordan 14:08.8 10 Jørgen Dam 14:20.4 11 Albert George Thomas 14:27.8 12 Fernando Aguilar 14:29.2 13 Alvaro Mejia Florez 14:41.4 — Ebrahim Yazdanpanah DNS
First round, heat 3
Place Athlete Nation Time 1 Mohammed Gammoudi 14:10.2 2 Bob Schul 14:11.4 3 Harald Norpoth 14:11.6 4 Murray Halberg 14:12.0 5 Josef Tomáš 14:12.6 6 Bengt Najde 14:13.4 7 Franc Červan 14:16.6 8 Simo Sakari Saloranta 14:24.6 9 Lajos Mecser 14:35.4 10 Jean Fayolle 14:44.6 11 Somsak Keaokanta 16:08.8 12 Ranatunge Karunananda 16:22.2 13 Nguyen Van Ly 17:28.0
First round, heat 4
Place Athlete Nation Time 1 Ron Clarke 13:48.4 2 Kipchoge Keino 13:49.6 3 Nikolay Dutov 13:50.6 4 Francisco Aritmendi 14:05.0 5 Sven-Olov Larsson 14:10.2 6 Satsuo Iwashita 14:18.4 7 Derek Graham 14:21.6 8 Oscar Moore 14:24.0 9 Simo Vazic 14:33.8 10 Henri Clerckx 14:40.0 11 Neville Ian Scott 15:01.0 — Ben Assou El Ghazi DNS Manuel Oliveira DNS Mamo Wolde DNS
Final
Place Athlete Nation Time 1000 2000 3000 4000 1 Bob Schul 13:48.8 2:51.4 5:40.0 8:25.0 11:16.2 2 Harald Norpoth 13:49.6 2:51.0 5:39.8 8:22.8 11:15.8 3 Bill Dellinger 13:49.8 2:51.8 5:40.6 8:25.8 11:16.4 4 Michel Jazy 13:49.8 2:50.4 5:39.6 8:22.4 11:15.6 5 Kipchoge Keino 13:50.4 2:50.8 5:40.4 8:25.6 11:16.0 6 Bill Baillie 13:51.0 2:50.6 5:39.8 8:24.2 11:16.0 7 Nikolay Dutov 13:53.8 2:51.6 5:40.4 8:23.2 11:15.8 8 Thor Helland 13:57.0 2:51.6 5:40.2 8:26.0 11:16.6 9 Ron Clarke 13:58.0 2:50.2 5:39.4 8:22.2 11:15.8 10 Stepan Baidiuk 14:11.2 2:51.0 5:40.0 8:25.6 11:19.2 11 Michael Edwin Wiggs 14:20.8 2:52.8 5:40.8 8:28.6 11:28.6 — Mohammed Gammoudi Did not start -
References