1952 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	45 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 22, 1952 (preliminary) July 24, 1952 (final)
Medalist Emil Zátopek ( TCH )   Alain Mimoun ( FRA )   Herbert Schade ( GER )

The men's 5000-meter race at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki was held on July 22nd and 24th, 1952 in the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki . 45 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Czechoslovak Emil Zátopek ahead of Alain Mimoun from France. Bronze went to Herbert Schade from Germany.

Existing records

World record	13: 58.2 min	Gunder Hägg ( Sweden )	Gothenburg , Sweden	September 20, 1942
Olympic record	14: 17.6 min	Gaston Reiff ( Belgium )	Final London , Great Britain	August 2, 1948

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in three heats on July 22nd. The five best runners each qualified for the final on July 24th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

July 22, 5:10 p.m .: Preliminary
July 24, 4:40 p.m .: Final

Prelims

Date: July 22, 1952, from 5:10 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Alain Mimoun	France	14: 19.0 min	14: 19.15 min
2	Ilmari Taipale	Finland	14: 22.8 min	14: 22.83 min
3	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	14: 23.8 min	14: 23.92 min
4th	Åke Andersson	Sweden	14: 25.0 min	14: 25.09 min
5	Gordon Pirie	Great Britain	14: 26.2 min	14: 26.47 min
6th	Nikifor Popov	Soviet Union	14: 28.5 min	14: 28.84 min
7th	Charlie Capozzoli	United States	14: 39.0 min	k. A.
8th	August Sutter	Switzerland	14: 45.2 min
9	Øistein Saksvik	Norway	14: 55.4 min
10	John Landy	Australia	14: 56.4 min
11	Helmuth Perz	Austria	14: 57.2 min
12	Osamu Inoue	Japan	14: 59.0 min
13	Stevan Pavlović	Yugoslavia	14: 59.2 min
14th	József Kovács	Hungary	17:09.2 min

Forward 2

With Ali Baghbanbashi, an Iranian athlete took part in the Olympic Games for the first time.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Herbert Schade	BR Germany	14: 15.4 min	14: 15.44 min	OR
2	Alan Parker	Great Britain	14: 18.2 min	14: 18.47 min
3	Ernő Béres	Hungary	14: 19.6 min	14: 19.66 min
4th	Lucien Theys	Belgium	14: 22.2 min	14: 21.62 min
5	Eero Tuomaala	Finland	14: 26.8 min	k. A.
6th	Ivan Semyonov	Soviet Union	14: 28.0 min
7th	Alojzy Graj	Poland	14: 30.0 min	k. A.
8th	Osman Coşgül	Turkey	14: 36.2 min
9	Bertil Karlsson	Sweden	14: 45.8 min
10	Pierre Page	Switzerland	14: 57.0 min
11	Ali Baghbanbashi	Iran	14: 57.2 min
12	Ben Ahmed Abdelkrim	France	15: 10.2 min
13	Wes Santee	United States	15: 10.4 min
14th	Zdravko Ceraj	Yugoslavia	15: 17.8 min
DNF	Rich Ferguson	Canada

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Alexander Anufrijew	Soviet Union	14: 23.6 min	14: 23.83 min
2	Bertil Albertsson	Sweden	14: 26.0 min	14: 25.80 min
3	Emil Zatopek	Czechoslovakia	14: 26.0 min	14: 25.81 min
4th	Les Perry	Australia	14: 27.0 min	14: 27.18 min
5	Christopher Chataway	Great Britain	14: 27.8 min	14: 27.35 min
6th	Ib Planck	Denmark	14: 31.6 min	14: 31.66 min
7th	Martin Stokken	Norway	14: 39.0 min	k. A.
8th	Curtis Stone	United States	14: 42.8 min
9	Jean Schlegel	France	14: 45.6 min
10	Kurt Rötzer	Austria	14: 49.4 min
11	Väinö Koskela	Finland	14: 50.8 min
12	Velimir Ilić	Yugoslavia	14: 51.6 min
13	Paul Peace	Luxembourg	15: 23.2 min
14th	Kristján Jóhansson	Iceland	15: 23.8 min
15th	Alphonse Vandenrydt	Belgium	15: 51.2 min
DNF	George Hoskins	New Zealand

Olympic champion Emil Zátopek (TCH)

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Emil Zatopek	Czechoslovakia	14: 06.6 min	14: 06.72 min	OR
2	Alain Mimoun	France	14: 07.4 min	14: 07.58 min
3	Herbert Schade	BR Germany	14: 08.6 min	14: 08.80 min
4th	Gordon Pirie	Great Britain	14: 18.0 min	14: 18.31 min
5	Christopher Chataway	Great Britain	14: 18.0 min	14: 18.38 min
6th	Les Perry	Australia	14: 23.6 min	14: 23.16 min
7th	Ernő Béres	Hungary	14: 24.8 min	k. A.
8th	Åke Andersson	Sweden	14: 26.0 min
9	Bertil Albertsson	Sweden	14: 27.8 min
10	Alexander Anufrijew	Soviet Union	14: 31.4 min
11	Alan Parker	Great Britain	14: 37.0 min
12	Ilmari Taipale	Finland	14: 40.0 min
13	Eero Tuomaala	Finland	14: 54.2 min
14th	Lucien Theys	Belgium	14: 59.0 min
DNF	Gaston Reiff	Belgium

Date: July 24, 1952, 4:40 p.m.

The role of favorites was - unlike over 10,000 meters - not so clear. The silver medalist from 1948 and reigning European champion Emil Zátopek, who had previously won the 10,000 meter race, was of course part of the very narrow group of contenders for the gold medal. But at the top of the world best of the year was the German Herbert Schade, who had drawn attention to himself with very good races. And also three runners from the USSR - Vladimir Kazantsev (only started over 3000 meters obstacle ), Alexander Anufrijew and Nikifor Popow - had excellent times. Alain Mimoun, who finished second behind Zátopek over 10,000 meters, was also not to be forgotten.
After a lap and a half, Schade took the lead. It was important for him to bet on the tempo card in order to break Zátopek's enormous sprint force. But the German wasn't consistent enough. He crossed the 1000 meter mark in 2:47 minutes, four seconds slower than in his preroll. The top group soon consisted of only six runners: Schade in front, behind Gaston Reiff, Olympic champion from 1948 , Zátopek, Mimoun, Chris Chataway and Gordon Pirie. Schade led the group for a long time and passed the 2000 meters at 5:37 minutes, the 3000 meters at 8:30 minutes and the 4000 meters at 11:25 minutes. Now the race was about as fast as the second run, in which Schade had run an Olympic record of 14: 15.4 minutes . The Belgian Reiff now gave up the race exhausted. Then Pirie had to tear down. At the beginning of the last lap, Chataway took the lead, now the four runners at the front sprinted for victory and for the medals with constantly changing leaders. After a short time, Zátopek fell back completely unexpectedly and Chataway once again used all reserves to get away. But Zátopek recovered, fought his way up and flew past his three remaining opponents. Chataway stepped on the inside edge in the final corner and fell exhausted. Zátopek now pulled through and could not be taken away from the gold medal. Mimoun came second, Schade came third. Pirie was also able to overtake the fallen Chataway and finished fourth, Chataway saved fifth.

Herbert Schade won the first medal for Germany over 5000 meters .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, SS 77–80

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed September 25, 2017
• Official report p. 284f, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 25, 2017
• 1952, Emil Zátopek, 5000m, Olympic Games, Helsinki , published June 20, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed September 25, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report p. 266, engl. (PDF)
3. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 78f