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.

Summary

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 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 sixteen spaces in the final. Due to falls in heat 2, eighteen runners contested 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
2016 World leading14:12.59Rome, Italy2 June 2016

The following record was established during the competition:
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
19 AugustFinalVivian Cheruiyot14:26.17

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time
DateTimeRound
Tuesday, 16 August 20169:30Heats
Friday, 19 August 201621:40Finals

Results

Heats

Heat 1

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. After the race, organizers decided to reinstate them both as finalists, along with Jennifer Wenth who was also impeded by the collision. Hamblin and D’Agostino were later awarded a Fair Play Award by the International Fair Play Committee for their actions in the heat. Injured, D'Agostino did not start the final.
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Almaz Ayana15:04.35
2Senbere Teferi15:17.43
3Vivian Cheruiyot15:17.74
4Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal15:17.83
5Eilish McColgan15:18.20
6Eloise Wellings15:19.02,
7Genevieve LaCaze15:20.45,
8Stephanie Twell15:25.90
9Misaki Onishi15:29.17
10Mimi Belete15:29.72
11Andrea Seccafien15:30.32
12Ayuko Suzuki15:41.81
13Stella Chesang15:49.80
14Jennifer Wenth16:07.02
15Nikki Hamblin16:43.61
16Abbey D'Agostino17:10.02
Bibiro Ali Taher

Final

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Vivian Cheruiyot14:26.17
Hellen Onsando Obiri14:29.77
Almaz Ayana14:33.59
Mercy Cherono14:42.89
Senbere Teferi14:43.75
Yasemin Can14:56.96
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal14:57.53
Susan Kuijken15:00.69
Eloise Wellings15:01.59
10Madeline Heiner Hills15:04.05
11Shelby Houlihan15:08.89
12Genevieve LaCaze15:10.35
13Eilish McColgan15:12.09
14Ababel Yeshaneh15:18.26
15Miyuki Uehara15:34.97
16Jennifer Wenth15:56.11
17Nikki Hamblin16:14.24
Abbey D'Agostino