Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 5000 metres


The Women's 5000 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event final was held at the Olympic Stadium on 10 of August.
From the start of the final Joanne Pavey took the lead, with Dibaba moving into the fourth position in the procession, ready to cover any moves. After about four laps Elena Romagnolo took up the front position for a few laps, to be replaced again with Pavey. At the 3K mark, Julia Bleasdale moved in behind her teammate, but in the next 200 metres, Dibaba decided it was time to take up the lead. The pace accelerated markedly, with the Ethiopian and Kenyan teams coming to the front and the others falling off the back. Viola Jelagat Kibiwot was the last to pay attention, sprinting along the outside to catch the group of leaders. Bleasdale was the last to stay with that group of six, who had achieved separation with 600 to go, Dibaba and Meseret Defar, led Kibiwot and Vivian Cheruiyot with the pace steadily increasing. With 200 to go, Cheruiyot moved into third, Kibiwot losing ground. Coming off the turn Defar moved onto Dibaba's shoulder, followed by Cheruiyot. Coming around the outside, Defar passed Dibaba, with Dibaba unable to change pace. 3 metres behind, Cheruiyot followed Defar to the line.

Competition format

The Women's 5000m competition consisted of heats 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 eight spaces in the Final.

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
World record14:11.15Oslo, Norway6 June 2008
Olympic record14:40.79Sydney, Australia25 September 2000
2012 World leading14:35.62Rome, Italy31 May 2012

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time
DateTimeRound
Tuesday, 7 August 201210:55Round 1
Friday, 10 August 201220:05Finals

Results

Heats

Qual. rule: first 5 of each heat plus the 5 fastest times qualified.

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Tirunesh Dibaba14:58.48Q
2Meseret Defar14:58.70Q
3Viola Kibiwot14:59.31Q
4Olga Golovkina15:05.26Q, PB
5Julie Culley15:05.38Q, PB
6Tejitu Daba15:05.59q, PB
7Silvia Weissteiner15:06.81SB
8Kayoko Fukushi15:09.31SB
9Barbara Parker15:12.81PB
10Fionnuala Britton15:12.97PB
11Lyudmyla Kovalenko15:18.60
12Judith Plá15:20.39PB
13Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal15:24.86PB
14Dudu Karakaya15:28.32
15Eloise Wellings15:35.53
16Sandra López15:55.16
-Nadia NoujaniDNF
-Sara MoreiraDNS

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Gelete Burka15:01.44Q
2Vivian Cheruiyot15:01.54Q
3Sally Kipyego15:01.87Q
4Julia Bleasdale15:02.00Q, PB
5Molly Huddle15:02.26Q, SB
6Yelena Nagovitsyna15:02.80q, PB
7Joanne Pavey15:02.84q, SB
8Shitaye Eshete15:05.48q, PB
9Elena Romagnolo15:06.38q, PB
10Hitomi Niiya15:10.20PB
11Almensh Belete15:10.24SB
12Kim Conley15:14.48PB
13Mika Yoshikawa15:16.77PB
14Nadia Ejjafini15:24.70
15Sheila Reid15:27.41
16Zakia Mrisho15:39.58
17Layes Abdullayeva15:45.69
18Roxana Bârcă16:01.04

Notes: Q- Qualified by place
q - Qualified by performance
PB - Personal Best
NR - National Record
SB - Seasonal Best
DQ - DisQualified
DNS - Did Not Start
DNF - Did Not Finish

Final

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
Meseret Defar15:04.25
Vivian Cheruiyot15:04.73
Tirunesh Dibaba15:05.15
Sally Kipyego15:05.79
Gelete Burka15:10.66
Viola Kibiwot15:11.59
Joanne Pavey15:12.72
Julia Bleasdale15:14.55
Olga Golovkina15:17.88
10Shitaye Eshete15:19.13
11Molly Huddle15:20.29
12Tejitu Daba15:21.34
13Yelena Nagovitsyna15:21.38
14Julie Culley15:28.22
15Elena Romagnolo15:35.69