World Athletics Championships 1997/5000 m for women

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	38 athletes from 27 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 7th (preliminary) August 9th (final)
Medalists Gabriela Szabo ( ROM )   Roberta Brunet ( ITA )   Fernanda Ribeiro ( POR )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The 5000-meter run for women at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held on August 7th and 9th, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens . The competition had replaced the 3000 meter race at the previous World Championships in Gothenburg , so it was only part of the program at the World Athletics Championships for the second time in this form.

World champion was the Romanian Olympic runner-up in 1996 over 1500 meters and European Championship third in 1994 over 3000 meters Gabriela Szabo . She won Roberta Brunet ahead of the 1996 Italian Olympic third-placed . Bronze went to the Portuguese Vice World Champion in 1995 and world record holder of Fernanda Ribeiro , which 10,000 meters was also 1995 world champion and 1994 European champion and four nights had previously won the silver medal.

Existing records

World record	14: 36.45 min	Fernanda Ribeiro	Hechtel , Belgium	July 22, 1995
World Cup record	14: 46.47 min	Sonia O'Sullivan	World Cup 1995 in Gothenburg , Sweden	August 12, 1995

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

Two national records were set:

• 18: 34.45 - Zalia Aliou ( Togo ), 1st run on August 7th
• 15: 55,22 - Restituta Joseph ( Tanzania ), 2nd lead on August 7th

Preliminary round

The preliminary round was held in two runs. The first six athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - as well as the three fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Forward 1

Nebiat Habtemariam did not reach the final as nineteenth of their preliminary run

August 7, 1997, 8:20 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	15: 26.62
2	Paula Radcliffe	Great Britain	15: 27.25
3	Harumi Hiroyama	Japan	15: 27.75
4th	Roberta Brunet	Italy	15: 29.03
5	Ayelech Worku	Ethiopia	15: 29.37
6th	Wei Li	People's Republic of China	15: 29.62
7th	Libbie Hickman	United States	15: 30.56
8th	Gunhild Hall	Norway	15: 32.13
9	Kate Anderson	Australia	15: 36.16
10	Elena Kopytova	Russia	15: 37.19
11	Adriana Fernández	Mexico	15: 41.55
12	Melody Fairchild	United States	15: 47.66
13	Marina Bastos	Portugal	15: 54.01
14th	Valerie Vaughan	Ireland	15: 57.58
15th	Zahra Ouaziz	Morocco	15: 58.84
16	Genet Gebregiorgis	Ethiopia	16: 04.40
17th	Laurence Duquenoy	France	16: 06.02
18th	Justine Nahimana	Burundi	17: 21.77
19th	Nebiat Habtemariam	Eritrea	18: 26.50
20th	Zalia Aliou	Togo	18: 34.45 NO
21st	Martha Portoblanco	Nicaragua	19: 08.44
DNS	Maysa Matrood	Iraq
	Elana Meyer	South Africa

Forward 2

August 7, 1997, 8:50 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Fernanda Ribeiro	Portugal	15: 27.30
2	Liu Jianying	People's Republic of China	15: 29.28
3	Lydia Cheromei	Kenya	15: 32.00
4th	Merima Denboba	Ethiopia	15: 32.01
5	Naoko Takahashi	Japan	15: 32.25
6th	Yuko Kawakami	Japan	15: 32.71
7th	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	15: 40.82
8th	Stela Olteanu	Romania	15: 40.86
9	Olivera Jevtić	Yugoslavia	15: 43.76
10	Hrisostomía Iakóvou	Greece	15: 51.14
11	Restituta Joseph	Tanzania	15: 55.22 NO
12	Amy Rudolph	United States	16: 00.87
13	Una English	Ireland	16: 07.09
14th	Jeļena Prokopčuka	Latvia	16: 27.63
15th	Helena Javornik	Slovenia	16: 28.38
DNF	Kristina da Fonseca-Wollheim	Germany
	Anne Hare	New Zealand
DNS	Carol Howe	Canada
	Annemari Sandell	Finland

Runners eliminated in the preliminary round in the second heat:

• 

  Sonia O'Sullivan (defending champion) - seventh place in 15: 40.82 min

• 

  Olivera Jevtić (Photo: 2009) - Ninth place in 15: 43.76 min

• 

  Jeļena Prokopčuka (here at the 2007 Boston Marathon ) - fourth place in 16: 27.63 min

• 

  Helena Javornik (here at the Zagreb Marathon 2011) - 15th place in 16: 28.38 min

final

World champion was Gabriela Szabo, in 1996 Olympic second over 1500 meters and in 1994 European Championship third over 3000 meters

August 9, 1997, 8:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	14: 57.68
2	Roberta Brunet	Italy	14: 58.29
3	Fernanda Ribeiro	Portugal	14: 58.85
4th	Paula Radcliffe	Great Britain	15: 01.74
5	Lydia Cheromei	Kenya	15: 07.88
6th	Liu Jianying	People's Republic of China	15: 10.64
7th	Libbie Hickman	United States	15: 11.15
8th	Harumi Hiroyama	Japan	15: 21.19
9	Wei Li	People's Republic of China	15: 24.04
10	Merima Denboba	Ethiopia	15: 27.76
11	Kate Anderson	Australia	15: 27.78
12	Ayelech Worku	Ethiopia	15: 28.07
13	Naoko Takahashi	Japan	15: 32.83
14th	Gunhild Hall	Norway	15: 37.85
15th	Yuko Kawakami	Japan	15: 45.48

• 

  Bronze won the world record holder Fernanda Ribeiro, 1995 vice world champion and over 10,000 meters also 1995 world champion and 1994 European champion - she had won the silver medal here four days earlier on the longest track distance

• 

  The speed runner Paula Radcliffe took fourth place and again missed a medal due to her weak sprint - later she won several precious metals

• 

  Lydia Cheromei (here at the 2008 Amsterdam Marathon ) came in fifth

• 

  Harumi Hiroyama (here during the marathon at the 2005 World Championships ) finished eighth

• 

  Thirteenth place for Naoko Takahashi (here at the Nagoya Marathon 2014) - in 2000 she was Olympic marathon champion

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 29, 2020
• Women 5000m Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed June 29, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 5000 m, Athens 1997, p. 282 (PDF; 10.3 MB), English, accessed on June 29, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 5000 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 29, 2020