1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	23 athletes from 13 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 26th, 1956 (heats) November 28th, 1956 (finals)
Medalist Volodymyr Kuz ( URS )   Gordon Pirie ( GBR )   Derek Ibbotson ( GBR )

The men's 5000-meter race at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 26 and 28, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 23 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Volodymyr Kuz from the Soviet Union. He won ahead of the two Britons Gordon Pirie and Derek Ibbotson .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. Two Germans started. Herbert Schade , bronze medalist from 1952 , reached the final and was twelfth there. Friedrich Janke was eliminated in sixth place in his preliminary run.

Existing records

World record	13: 36.8 min	Gordon Pirie ( Great Britain )	Bergen , Norway	June 19, 1956
Olympic record	14: 06.6 min	Emil Zátopek ( Czechoslovakia )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 24, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in three heats on November 26th. The five best runners in each case qualified for the final, which took place on November 28th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 26th, 3:50 p.m .: Preliminaries
November 28, 4:45 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

Prelims

Friedrich Janke, here at the GDR championship in 1958 in the forest run, failed in the preliminary run.

Date: November 26, 1956, from 3:50 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Gordon Pirie	Great Britain	14: 25.6 min	14: 25.69 min
2	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia	14: 25.6 min	14: 25.71 min
3	Bill Dellinger	United States	14: 26.8 min	14: 26.92 min
4th	Pyotr Bolotnikov	Soviet Union	14: 28.0 min	14: 28.17 min
5	Thyge Thøgersen	Denmark	14: 29.0 min	14: 29.34 min
6th	Arere Anentia	Kenya	14: 37.0 min	14: 37.30 min
7th	Åhlund rune	Sweden	15: 12.0 min	k. A.
DNF	Kazimierz Zimny	Poland

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Allan Lawrence	Australia	14: 14.6 min	14: 14.67 min
2	Volodymyr Kuz	Soviet Union	14: 15.4 min	14: 15.47 min
3	László Tábori	Hungary	14: 18.6 min	14: 18.75 min
4th	Derek Ibbotson	Great Britain	14: 18.8 min	14: 18.78 min
5	Herbert Schade	Germany	14: 18.8 min	14: 19.25 min
6th	Ilmari Taipale	Finland	14: 24.2 min	k. A.
7th	Curtis Stone	United States	14: 52.0 min
8th	Doug Kyle	Canada	14: 59.0 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Albie Thomas	Australia	14: 14.2 min	14: 14.41 min
2	Nyandika Maiyoro	Kenya	14: 29.4 min	14: 29.59 min
3	Ivan Chernyavskyi	Soviet Union	14: 32.4 min	14: 32.49 min
4th	Miklós Szabó	Hungary	14: 32.6 min	14: 32.83 min
5	Christopher Chataway	Great Britain	14: 32.6 min	14: 32.87 min
6th	Friedrich Janke	Germany	14: 40.6 min	14: 40.89 min
7th	Jerzy Chromik	Poland	14: 51.4 min	k. A.

final

Olympic champion Volodymyr Kuz on a Russian postage stamp from 2000

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Volodymyr Kuz	Soviet Union	13: 39.6 min	13: 39.86 min	OR
2	Gordon Pirie	Great Britain	13: 50.6 min	13: 50.78 min
3	Derek Ibbotson	Great Britain	13: 54.4 min	13: 54.60 min
4th	Miklós Szabó	Hungary	14: 03.4 min	14: 03.38 min
5	Albie Thomas	Australia	14: 04.6 min	14:05.03 min
6th	László Tábori	Hungary	14: 09.8 min	14:09.99 min
7th	Nyandika Maiyoro	Kenya	14: 19.0 min	14: 18.99 min
8th	Thyge Thøgersen	Denmark	14: 21.0 min	14: 21.81 min
9	Pyotr Bolotnikov	Soviet Union	14: 22.4 min	14: 22.63 min
10	Ivan Chernyavskyi	Soviet Union	14: 22.4 min	14: 22.67 min
11	Christopher Chataway	Great Britain	14: 28.8 min	14: 28.63 min
12	Herbert Schade	Germany	14: 31.8 min	14: 31.90 min
DNF	Bill Dellinger	United States
	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia

Date: November 28, 1956, 4:45 p.m.

The 1952 winner , the Czechoslovak Emil Zátopek , only competed in the marathon in Melbourne . Four athletes in particular were considered favorites: the Soviet runner Wolodymyr Kuz, European champion from 1954 , runner-up European champion Christopher Chataway from Great Britain, Sándor Iharos from Hungary, who had improved several world records in the medium and long-distance range in 1955 and 1956 , and the current world record holder Gordon Pirie , like Chataway from the UK. However, Iharos did not appear in Melbourne.

In the final, Kuz took the lead right from the start after his victory over 10,000 meters. The pace he set was high - 1000 m: 2: 40.1 / 2000 m: 5: 26.2 / 3000 m: 8: 11.2. Only the three Britons Chataway, Pirie and Derek Ibbotson were able to follow up to the 4000 meter mark. Chataway, tormented by stomach cramps, was the first to be torn off and fell back to eleventh place. Now Kuz put in his well-known intermediate sprints. That was when it happened to Pirie and Ibbotson. Kuz won with a lead of eleven seconds and set the Soviet national record. This was the greatest advantage an Olympic Games winner in this discipline would ever have over the silver medalist. Kuz improved the Olympic record of his predecessor by 27 seconds. Pirie and Ibbotson were able to keep their placings and took second and third place.

Volodymyr Kuz won the first Soviet Olympic victory over 5000 meters . It was the second gold medal for Kuz at these Olympic Games after winning the 10,000 meters.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 130f

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed October 2, 2017
• Official report p. 296f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
• USSR, CCCP, Vladimir Kuts 1956 Olympic champion , published February 9, 2011 on youtube.com, accessed October 2, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
3. ↑ Official report p. 296, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
4. ^ Official report p. 297, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)