Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 5000 metres

The women's 5000 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 16–19 August at the Olympic Stadium.[1]

Women's 5000 metres
at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Interior view of the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, where the Women's 5000m took place.
VenueOlympic Stadium
Dates16 August 2016 (heats)
19 August 2016 (final)
Winning time14:26.17 OR
Medalists
Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya
Hellen Onsando Obiri  Kenya
Almaz Ayana  Ethiopia

Summary

Almaz Ayana came into this race with the number two time in history, run just two and a half months earlier. That race in Rome came within a second and a half of the world record, so expectations were high. Ayana's strategy was well known to these competitors, she had used it to win the World Championships in 2015, the qualification to these Olympics and to win the 10,000 metres at these Olympics. In particular, Vivian Cheruiyot had experienced it first hand in that 10,000, being relegated to silver.

The final started with confusion as the athletes were called to the line three times before the gun was actually fired. Once started Miyuki Uehara went to the front, her move immediately covered by Ayana. The two opened up a 7-metre gap in the first 200 metres of the race. The next lap in 74 seconds was slow and the field, led by four Kenyans reeled in the leaders. Uehara led for 4 and a quarter relatively slow laps, then Ayana executed her strategy, she accelerated. The Kenyans; Cheruiyot, Hellen Onsando Obiri, Mercy Cherono and Yasemin Can running for Turkey rushed to try to cover the move. After 75 second laps, Ayana dropped it to 65 seconds, establishing a 25-metre lead on the pack of Kenyans led by Can and Cheruiyot. Ten other runners in the race were dropped to 60 metres back, with only Senbere Teferi in a no man's land in between groups. Ayana's next two laps were 66 and 68. Can fell off, but the three Kenyans stayed with the pace. The next lap was 69 seconds, but more importantly, unlike her previous races, the gap was not growing. With 1000 metres remaining in the race, Cherono fell off the back but Cheruiyot accelerated with Obiri trying to hold on. The gap was shrinking. Within 300 metres, it disappeared as Cheruiyot went past Ayana. In the next hundred metres, Obiri also went by Ayana. With a lap to go, Cheruiyot had run the 66 second lap and Cheruiyot the 25 metre gap, Ayana was struggling to hold onto any medal at all. Running a 65.59 last lap, Cheruiyot extended the gap to 50 metres, and almost 20 back to Obiri to take gold and leave Obiri silver. Ayana held on to third for the bronze medal. All three were under the previous Olympic record.

The medals were presented by Dagmawit Girmay Berhane, IOC member, Ethiopia and Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad, Vice President of the IAAF.

Competition format

The women's 5000m competition consisted of heats (Round 1) and a final. The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the final along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the (normally) sixteen spaces in the final. Due to falls in heat 2, eighteen runners contested the final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 14:11.15 Oslo, Norway 6 June 2008
Olympic record  Gabriela Szabo (ROU) 14:40.79 Sydney, Australia 25 September 2000
2016 World leading  Almaz Ayana (ETH) 14:12.59 Rome, Italy 2 June 2016

The following record was established during the competition:

DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
19 AugustFinalVivian Cheruiyot Kenya14:26.17OR

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Date Time Round
Tuesday, 16 August 20169:30Heats
Friday, 19 August 201621:40Finals

Results

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Hellen Onsando Obiri Kenya15:19.48Q
2Yasemin Can Turkey15:19.50Q
3Mercy Cherono Kenya15:19.56Q
4Shelby Houlihan United States15:19.76Q
5Susan Kuijken Netherlands15:19.96Q, SB
6Madeline Heiner Hills Australia15:21.33q
7Miyuki Uehara Japan15:23.41q, SB
8Ababel Yeshaneh Ethiopia15:24.38q
9Juliet Chekwel Uganda15:29.07
10Laura Whittle Great Britain15:31.30
11Louise Carton Belgium15:34.39
12Kim Conley United States15:34.39
13Jessica O'Connell Canada15:51.18
14Lucy Oliver New Zealand15:53.77
15Sharon Firisua Solomon Islands18:01.62
16Beatrice Kamuchanga Alice Democratic Republic of the Congo19:29.47
Dalila Abdulkadir BahrainDNS

Heat 2

In heat 2, Abbey D'Agostino and Nikki Hamblin collided and fell. D'Agostino was the first to get up but instead of running ahead, she stopped to help Hamblin up. Later in the race, it turned out that D'Agostino's injury was the more serious as she started limping and fell again. This time, Hamblin stopped and encouraged her to get up and finish the race.[2] After the race, organizers decided to reinstate them both as finalists, along with Jennifer Wenth who was also impeded by the collision.[3] Hamblin and D’Agostino were later awarded a Fair Play Award by the International Fair Play Committee for their actions in the heat.[4] Injured, D'Agostino did not start the final.

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Almaz Ayana Ethiopia15:04.35Q
2Senbere Teferi Ethiopia15:17.43Q
3Vivian Cheruiyot Kenya15:17.74Q
4Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal Norway15:17.83Q
5Eilish McColgan Great Britain15:18.20Q
6Eloise Wellings Australia15:19.02q, SB
7Genevieve LaCaze Australia15:20.45q, PB
8Stephanie Twell Great Britain15:25.90
9Misaki Onishi Japan15:29.17
10Mimi Belete Bahrain15:29.72
11Andrea Seccafien Canada15:30.32
12Ayuko Suzuki Japan15:41.81
13Stella Chesang Uganda15:49.80
14Jennifer Wenth Austria16:07.02q[lower-alpha 1]
15Nikki Hamblin New Zealand16:43.61q[lower-alpha 1]
16Abbey D'Agostino United States17:10.02q[lower-alpha 1]
Bibiro Ali Taher ChadDNF

Final

Vivian Cheruiyot celebrates as she finishes
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Vivian Cheruiyot Kenya14:26.17OR
Hellen Onsando Obiri Kenya14:29.77PB
Almaz Ayana Ethiopia14:33.59
4Mercy Cherono Kenya14:42.89
5Senbere Teferi Ethiopia14:43.75
6Yasemin Can Turkey14:56.96
7Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal Norway14:57.53PB
8Susan Kuijken Netherlands15:00.69PB
9Eloise Wellings Australia15:01.59SB
10Madeline Heiner Hills Australia15:04.05PB
11Shelby Houlihan United States15:08.89
12Genevieve LaCaze Australia15:10.35PB
13Eilish McColgan Great Britain15:12.09
14Ababel Yeshaneh Ethiopia15:18.26
15Miyuki Uehara Japan15:34.97
16Jennifer Wenth Austria15:56.11
17Nikki Hamblin New Zealand16:14.24SB
Abbey D'Agostino United StatesDNS

Notes

  1. Post-race, organizers decided to reinstate Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D'Agostino as finalists, along with Jennifer Wenth who was also impeded by the collision.[5]

References

  1. "Women's 5000m". Rio 2016 Organisation. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  2. "Rio Olympics 2016: US and NZ runners help each other". BBC. 17 August 2016.
  3. "Report: women's 5000m heats – Rio 2016 Olympic Games". International Association of Athletics Federations. 16 August 2016.
  4. https://www.olympic.org/news/fair-play-awards-recognise-true-olympic-champions-in-sportsmanship
  5. "Report: women's 5000m heats – Rio 2016 Olympic Games". International Association of Athletics Federations. 16 August 2016.
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