1948 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	33 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Wembley Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1948 (preliminary) August 2, 1948 (final)
Medalist Gaston Reiff ( BEL )   Emil Zátopek ( TCH )   Willem Slijkhuis ( NED )

The men's 5000 meter race at the 1948 Olympic Games in London was held on July 31 and August 2, 1948 at Wembley Stadium . 33 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Belgian Gaston Reiff, ahead of the Czechoslovak Emil Zátopek . Willem Slijkhuis from the Netherlands won bronze .

Existing records

• World record : 13: 58.2 min - Gunder Hägg ( Sweden ), Gothenburg , September 20, 1942 - Hägg was the first runner to undercut the 14-minute mark.
• Olympic record : 14: 22.2 min - Gunnar Höckert ( Finland ), Berlin final , August 7, 1936

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in three preliminary runs on July 31st, from which the four best runners qualified for the final on August 6th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

July 31, 1948, 4 p.m.
Not all times have been recorded.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Evert Nyberg	Sweden	14: 58.2 min
2	Väinö Koskela	Finland	14: 58.3 min
3	Curt Stone	United States	14: 58.6 min
4th	Marcel Vandewattyne	Belgium	15: 14.0 min
5	Jacques Vernier	France	15: 29.8 min
6th	Harold Nelson	New Zealand	15: 34.4 min
7th	Jef lataster	Netherlands	15: 39.0 min
8th	Jack Braughton	Great Britain	k. A.
9	Cliff Salmond	Canada	16:05.0 min
10	Manny Ramjohn	Trinidad and Tobago	k. A.
DNF	John Joe Barry	Ireland
DNF	Aage Poulsen	Denmark

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Erik Ahlden	Sweden	14: 34.2 min
2	Emil Zatopek	Czechoslovakia	14: 34.4 min
3	Väinö Mäkelä	Finland	14: 45.8 min
4th	Martin Stokken	Norway	15:04.4 min
5	Maurice Pouzieux	France	15: 09.8 min
6th	Gregorio Rojo	Spain	15: 19.0 min
7th	Bill Lucas	Great Britain	k. A.
8th	Lou Wen-ngau	China	k. A.
9	Vasilios Mavrapostolos	Greece	k. A.
10	Sim Bok-seok	South Korea	k. A.
DNF	Mustafa Ozcan	Turkey
DNF	Clarence Robison	United States

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Willem Slijkhuis	Netherlands	15: 06.8 min
2	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	15: 07.0 min
3	Bertil Albertsson	Sweden	15: 07.8 min
4th	Helge Perälä	Finland	15: 07.8 min
5	Jerry Thompson	United States	15: 08.4 min
6th	Alain Mimoun	France	15: 11.2 min
7th	Alec Olney	Great Britain	k. A.
8th	Martín Alarcón	Mexico	k. A.
9	Ernst Günther	Switzerland	k. A.

final

Emil Zátopek (TCH), winner of the silver medal

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	14: 17.6 min	OR
2	Emil Zatopek	Czechoslovakia	14: 17.8 min
3	Willem Slijkhuis	Netherlands	14: 26.8 min
4th	Erik Ahlden	Sweden	14: 28.6 min
5	Bertil Albertsson	Sweden	14: 39.0 min
6th	Curt Stone	United States	14: 39.4 min
7th	Väinö Koskelaä	Finland	14: 41.0 min
8th	Väinö Mäkelä	Finland	14: 43.0 min
9	Marcel Vandewattyne	Belgium	k. A.
10	Martin Stokken	Norway	k. A.
11	Helge Perälä	Finland	k. A.
DNF	Evert Nyberg	Sweden

August 2, 1948, 5 p.m.

Seven Scandinavians competed in the final, three Swedes and three Finns. The rest of the starting field was made up of two Belgians, a Dutch, a Czechoslovak and an American. Gunder Hägg from Sweden was the world record holder like over 1500 meters . Since he had violated the amateur status, he was not allowed to start over the 5000 meters . The 1946 European Champion, Brit Sydney Wooderson , was injured. Right
from the start, the winner of the 10,000 meter race , Emil Zátopek, set the pace that only the Belgian Gaston Reiff, the Swede Erik Ahldén and the Dutchman Willem Slijkhuis, third in the 1500 m, could follow. In the ninth lap, Reiff made an intermediate sprint, which gave him a clear lead over his pursuers. At the beginning of the last lap he was leading with about 20 meters in front of Slijkhuis and almost 50 meters in front of the tired-looking Zátopek. But now Zátopek was jolted. He overtook Slijkhuis and even fought his way to Reiff, who, however, won the race by a narrow margin.

Gaston Reiff won Belgium's first gold medal in athletics.
Emil Zátopek won the first Czechoslovak medal in this discipline.
For the first time there was no Scandinavian medalist.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 23f

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed August 20, 2017
• Official report , page 250, engl. (PDF), accessed on August 20, 2017
• A Breathtaking finish between Emil Zátopek and Gaston Reiff in the 5,000m - London 1948 Olympics , published November 27, 2012, accessed August 20, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" page 240, engl. (PDF)
3. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" page 240
4. ↑ SportsReference , engl.
5. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 23