The women's

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on 19–22 August at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

. The qualifying standards were 15:09.00 (A standard) and 15:24.00 (B standard). While the race was strategically different, the results were much the same as the 10,000m final a week earlier.

Elvan Abeylegesse Elvan Abeylegesse, (also formerly: Hewan Abeye (አልቫን አበይለገሠ, Amharic) and Elvan Can ( Turkish); born September 11, 1982) is an Ethiopian-born naturalized Turkish middle and long-distance running athlete who competes over d ...

took the lead early, but the field did not dissipate behind her. Instead, Ethiopians, Kenyans and newly-crowned steeplechase world record holder,

Gulnara Samitova-Galkina Gulnara Iskanderovna Samitova-Galkina (russian: Гульнара Искандеровна Самитова-Галкина, tt-Cyrl, Гөлнара Искәндәр кызы Самитова-Галкина) (born 9 July 1978 in Naberezhnye Chelny, ...

, countered each attempt to pull away. Going into the last lap, Abeylegesse of Turkey and three Ethiopians were at the front, with the Kenyan team and Russian Liliya Shobukhova trailing.

Tirunesh Dibaba Tirunesh Dibaba ( om, Xirunesh Dibaabaa, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 June 1985) is an Ethiopian athlete who competed in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold medals, ...

jumped into the lead with the expected chase coming from

Meseret Defar Meseret Defar Tola (Amharic: መሠረት ደፋር; born 19 November 1983) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes chiefly in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres events. She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including O ...

, in one of the few head-to-head battles between these two stars. But Abeylegesse refused to get out of the picture. Through the final turn she caught Defar and swung wide into lane 2 as if to speed past Dibaba. She was able to match Dibaba's speed down the final straight but couldn't make up the ground she had lost, with Dibaba taking her second gold medal and Defar holding off the rest of the field to take bronze. On 29 March 2017, IAAF confirmed that Abeylegesse had tested positive for a banned substance at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, and that her results from 2007 to 2009, including her Olympic silvers, had been expunged.IAAF March 2017 Newsletter
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Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows: No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Round 1

Qualification: First 6 in each heat(Q) and the next 3 fastest(q) advance to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Final

Splits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 5000 metres Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics 5000 metres at the Olympics 2008 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics