1928 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	38 athletes from 19 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium Amsterdam
Competition phase	July 31, 1928 (preliminary) August 3, 1928 (final)
Medalist Ville Ritola ( FIN )   Paavo Nurmi ( FIN )   Edvin Wide ( SWE )

The men's 5000 meter run at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam was held on July 31 and August 3, 1928 in the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. 38 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Finn Ville Ritola ahead of his compatriot Paavo Nurmi . Bronze went to Edvin Wide from Sweden .

Existing records

• World record : 14: 28.2 min - Paavo Nurmi ( Finland ), Helsinki , June 19, 1924
• Olympic record : 14: 31.2 min - Paavo Nurmi ( Finland ), Paris final , July 10, 1924

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in three heats on July 31. The four best runners in each case qualified for the final, which took place on August 3rd.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Olympic Champion Ville Ritola (FIN)

Silver for Paavo Nurmi (FIN)

Bronze for Edvin Wide (SWE)

Not all times have been passed down.

Forward 1

Date: July 31, 1928

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Leo Lermond	United States	15: 02.6 min
2	Staņislavs Petkēvičs	Latvia	15: 03.0 min
3	Eino Purje	Finland	15: 03.6 min
4th	Ragnar Magnusson	Sweden	15: 03.8 min
5	Wally Beavers	Great Britain	k. A.
6th	Carl Petersen	Denmark	15: 13.0 min
7th	Frederick Light	Great Britain	k. A.
8th	Lucien Duquesne	France
9	Seghir Beddari	France
DNF	Ciro Chapa	Mexico
	Charles Haworth	United States
	Billy Kibblewhite	Canada
	Karel Nedobitý	Czechoslovakia
	Julien Serwy	Belgium
	Nol Wolf	Netherlands

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Nils Eklöf	Sweden	15: 07.4 min
2	Ville Ritola	Finland	15: 10.8 min
3	Arma's chin	Finland	15: 10.8 min
4th	Brian Oddie	Great Britain	15: 16.0 min
5	Jesús Oyarbide	Spain	15: 22.0 min
6th	Roger Pelé	France	k. A.
7th	Willi Boltze	German Empire	15: 33.0 min
8th	Jozef Koščak	Czechoslovakia	15: 42.0 min
9	Andreas Paouris	Greece	k. A.
10	Julius Petraitis	Lithuania
11	Dave Abbott	United States
DNF	Pieter Gerbrands	Netherlands
	George Hyde	Australia
	Kind Keay	Canada

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Macauley Smith	United States	15:04.0 min
2	Edvin Wide	Sweden	15: 05.0 min
3	Herbert Johnston	Great Britain	15: 06.3 min
4th	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	15: 08.0 min
5	Otto Kohn	German Empire	k. A.
6th	Arie Klaase	Netherlands
7th	Arturo Peña	Spain	15: 45.0 min
8th	Vincent Callard	Canada	k. A.
DNF	Gurbachan Singh	British India

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ville Ritola	Finland	14: 38.0 min
2	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	14: 40.0 min
3	Edvin Wide	Sweden	14: 41.2 min
4th	Leo Lermond	United States	14: 50.0 min
5	Ragnar Magnusson	Sweden	14: 59.6 min
6th	Armas Kirunnen	Finland	15:02.0 min
7th	Staņislavs Petkēvičs	Latvia	k. A.
8th	Herbert Johnston	Great Britain
9	Brian Oddie	Great Britain
10	Macauley Smith	United States
DNF	Nils Eklöf	Sweden
	Eino Purje	Finland

Date: August 3, 1928

Nothing seemed to have changed from the situation in the last few games . The two Finns Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola as well as the Swede Edvin Wide separated from the rest of the field after approx. 3000 meters and won the medals among themselves. On the penultimate lap, Nurmi and Ritola were also able to leave the Swedes behind and fought for the gold medal. But then it turned out differently than expected. In contrast to 1924 and unlike here five days before over 10,000 meters , Ritola prevailed and defeated his famous compatriot. Afterwards, there were even skeptical voices, which led to the assumption that the Finnish team management had directed this and influenced the result. But there was not the slightest evidence for this, apart from assumptions. The sports journalist Willy Meisl , who was very well known at the time, confirms this impression after a conversation with Nurmi and Ritola

Ville Ritola won the fifth and final gold medal of his career.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 196f

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed September 12, 2017
• Official report pp. 421–423 engl. (PDF), accessed on September 12, 2017

Video

• Flying Finn Ritola signs off with fifth gold - Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games , published May 29, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed September 12, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 197