The men's 5000 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The event was held at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

on 8–11 August. In a tactical, slow race, the gold medal was won by reigning World champion

Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a British long-distance runner. His ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever ...

of host

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, completing a distance double having won the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...

a week earlier. Ethiopia's

Dejen Gebremeskel Dejen Gebremeskel (born 24 November 1989) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who primarily competes in track events. His personal best of 12:46.81 minutes for the 5000 metres ranks him as the fifth fastest of all time for the distance. ...

took silver, with Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa of Kenya in bronze position.

Summary

The final race started out slowly, the first lap in 74.1 and only that fast because

Hayle Ibrahimov Hayle Ibrahimov ( am, ቀዳማዊ ደስታ ሃጎስ – ''Haile Desta Hagos''; born 18 January 1990) is an Ethiopian-born Azerbaijani international middle and long distance track and field athlete, mainly competing in the disciplines of 3000 ...

accelerated the last 100. The field continued running splits in the 70s,

Lopez Lomong Lopez Lomong (born January 5, 1985) is a South Sudanese-born American track and field athlete. Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, came to the United States at the age of 16 and became a U.S. citizen in 2007. Lomong qualified for the 2008 Su ...

leading through 2000 in a pedestrian 5:56.7. In the seventh lap

Yenew Alamirew Yenew Alamirew Getahun (born 27 May 1990 in Tilili, Amhara) is an Ethiopian middle and long-distance runner. He represented his country at the 2012 Summer Olympics as well as two indoor and one outdoor World Championships. Yenew was the 201 ...

moved to the front and accelerated the pace, the next several laps down below 62,

the only one to break up the Ethiopian team at the front. With 700 to go, Farah took the lead, his training partner

Galen Rupp Galen Rupp (born May 8, 1986) is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000-meter run in London ...

joining him with 500 to go, as the rest of the field jostling to be in position to sprint. First

Hagos Gebrhiwet Hagos Gebrhiwet Berhe ( ti, ሓጎስ ገብረሂወት, born 11 May 1994) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner and the former World Junior Record holder in the 5000 meters (12:47:53). Early life Born in the Tigray Region, he took up runni ...

challenged, then disappeared. Down the backstretch, Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa challenged, with

Abdalaati Iguider Reda Abdalaati Iguider ( ar, عبد العاطي إيكدير; born 25 March 1987) is a Moroccan runner who specializes in the 1500 metres. Over 1500 metres, he is the bronze medalist from the London Olympic Games and the 2012 World Indoor Champ ...

immediately behind.

, Bernard Lagat and Isiah Kiplangat Koech packing up around the final turn. At the head of the stretch, Koech contacted Lagat as he was just coming clear to sprint, Lagat stumbling. Meanwhile, Farah was accelerating ahead of Longosiwa, who couldn't handle the speed. Gebremeskel went around the outside with Lagat's delayed sprint unable to catch Longosiwa. The winning time was more than 15 seconds slower than the slowest time in qualifying.

Competition format

The Men's 5000m competition consisted of heats (Round 1) and a Final. A total of fifteen competitors qualified for the Final from the heats.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time **B ...

)

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 5 of each heat (Q) plus the 5 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Hassan Hirt Hassan Hirt is a French long-distance runner. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's 5000 metres, finishing 26th overall in Round 1, failing to qualify for the final. He was later disqualified for testing positive for EPO and susp ...

originally finished 11th in a time of 13:35.36, but was later disqualified after testing positive for EPO.

Heat 2

Final

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 5000 metres Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics 5000 metres at the Olympics Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics