1972 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	61 athletes from 35 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium Munich
Competition phase	September 7, 1972 (preliminary) September 10, 1972 (final)
Medalist Lasse Virén ( FIN )   Mohamed Gammoudi ( DO )   Ian Stewart ( GBR )

The men's 5000 meter run at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich was held on September 7th and 10th, 1972 in the Munich Olympic Stadium. 61 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Finn Lasse Virén . The silver medal went to the Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi , bronze went to the Briton Ian Stewart .

For the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - Harald Norpoth , Wolfgang Riesinger and Jürgen May started . May and Riesinger failed in their preliminary stages. Norpoth reached the final and was sixth there.
The GDR was represented by Frank Eisenberg , who was ninth in the final.
The Swiss Fritz Rüegsegger retired in the preliminary run.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	13: 16.6 min	Ron Clarke ( Australia )	Stockholm , Sweden	July 6, 1966
Olympic record	13: 39.6 min	Volodymyr Kuz ( Soviet Union )	Melbourne finals , Australia	November 28, 1956

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of five heats on September 7th. The two first runners and the four fastest runners reached the final on September 10th.

Time schedule

September 7th, 2.30 p.m .: preliminary runs

September 10, 3:10 p.m .: Final

The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green.

Preliminary round

Date: September 7, 1972, from 2.30 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mohamed Gammoudi	Tunisia	13: 49.8 min
2	David Bedford	Great Britain	13: 49.8 min
3	Ben Jipcho	Kenya	13: 56.8 min
4th	Gärderud is different	Sweden	13: 57.2 min
5	Michael Keogh	Ireland	13: 57.8 min
6th	René Goris	Belgium	13: 57.8 min
7th	Arne Risa	Norway	14: 01.6 min
8th	Takaharu Koyama	Japan	14: 12.6 min
9	Carlos Lopes	Portugal	14: 29.6 min
10	Esau Adenji	Cameroon	15: 19.6 min
11	Phang Cue Suppiah	Singapore	15: 36.6 min
DNS	Jadour Haddou	Morocco
	Siatka Badji	Senegal
	Dane Korica	Yugoslavia

Forward 2

The New Zealander Dick Quax in 1977

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium	13: 31.8 min	OR
2	Steve Prefontaine	United States	13: 32.6 min
3	Harald Norpoth	BR Germany	13: 33.4 min
4th	Javier Álvarez	Spain	13: 36.6 min
5	Grant McLaren	Canada	13: 43.8 min
6th	Pedro Miranda	Mexico	13: 45.2 min
7th	Vladimir Afonin	Soviet Union	14: 08.6 min
8th	Raymond Zembri	France	14: 34.4 min
9	Dick Quax	New Zealand	14: 35.2 min
10	Gert Kærlin	Denmark	14: 39.2 min
11	Carlos Cuque	Guatemala	15: 53.4 min
DNS	Mikhail Yelev	Bulgaria
	Angel Perez	Costa Rica
	Kerry O'Brian	Australia

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ian McCafferty	Great Britain	13: 38.2 min
2	Frank Eisenberg	GDR	13: 38.4 min
3	By hall	Norway	13: 38.6 min
4th	Dušan Moravčík	Czechoslovakia	13: 40.4 min
5	Paul Mose	Kenya	13: 41.4 min
6th	Tapio cantans	Finland	13: 42.0 min
7th	Tony Benson	Australia	13: 42.8 min
8th	Boualem Rahoui	Algeria	13: 45.0 min
9	Tekle Fetinsa	Ethiopia	13: 50.4 min
10	Richard Tayler	New Zealand	13: 56.2 min
11	Edward Sequeira	India	14:01.4 min
12	John Hartnett	Ireland	14: 34.6 min
13	Abdullah Al-Mabrouk	Saudi Arabia	15: 51.0 min
DNS	Jos Hermens	Netherlands

Forward 4

Willy Polleunis from Belgium

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Juha Väätäinen	Finland	13: 32.8 min
2	Ian Stewart	Great Britain	13: 33.0 min
3	Mariano Haro	Spain	13: 36.4 min
4th	Tolossa Kotu	Ethiopia	13: 40.4 min
5	Willy Polleunis	Belgium	13: 52.6 min
6th	Nikolai Puklakov	Soviet Union	13: 57.6 min
7th	Mario Perez	Mexico	13: 58.2 min
8th	Leonard Hilton	United States	14: 07.2 min
9	Wolfgang Riesinger	BR Germany	14: 15.2 min
10	Knut Børø	Norway	14: 15.8 min
11	Jørn Lauenborg	Denmark	14: 18.8 min
12	Evans Mogaka	Kenya	14: 37.2 min
13	Damiano Musonda	Zambia	14: 37.4 min
DNS	Ardelham Khamis	Egypt

Forward 5

Miruts Yifter missed his lead because he took the wrong entrance to the stadium. He didn't arrive in time for the start.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Let Virén	Finland	13: 38.4 min
2	Nikolai Sviridov	Soviet Union	13: 38.4 min
3	Josef Jánský	Czechoslovakia	13: 39.8 min
4th	George Young	United States	13: 41.2 min
5	Edmundo Warnke	Chile	13: 43.6 min
6th	Bob Finlay	Canada	13: 44.0 min
7th	Keisuke Sawaki	Japan	13: 44.8 min
8th	Bronislaw Malinowski	Poland	13: 48.2 min
9	Jürgen May	BR Germany	14: 06.6 min
10	Gavin Thorley	New Zealand	14: 11.6 min
11	Hikmet Şen	Turkey	14: 26.0 min
12	Fritz Rüegsegger	Switzerland	14: 54.4 min
13	Usaia Sotutu	Fiji	15: 24.2 min
DNS	Miruts Yifter	Ethiopia
	Crispin Quispe	Bolivia

final

Date: September 10, 1972, 3,310 p.m.

There was a wide range of favorites for this race. After his Olympic victory over 10,000 meters, Lasse Virén from Finland, his compatriot Juha Väätäinen, double European champion in 1971 , the 21-year-old US runner Steve Prefontaine, the Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi, Olympic champion 1968 , the Belgian Emiel Puttemans, silver medalist here in Munich over 10,000 meters, the Briton Ian Stewart, European Champion 1969 , and also the West German runner Harald Norpoth, last third at the European Championships in 1971.

The final race started at a slow pace, the runners stayed together for a long time. With four laps to go, Prefontaine dared to attack, he increased the pace and the field tore apart. Virén, Puttemans, Stewart and Gammoudi remained on the heels of the American. At the beginning of the last lap, Virén took the lead and pushed again. Stewart and Puttemans were falling behind now too. At the front, Gammoudi, Prefontaine and Virén fought for the Olympic victory with constantly changing guides. Leaving the curve, Lasse Virén sprinted past his opponents to the gold medal in front of Mohamed Gammoudi. Steve Prefontaine had to pay tribute to his fast pace and was intercepted by Ian Stewart, who won the bronze medal. Emiel Puttemans came in fifth. Harald Norpoth decided the sprint of the next chasing group for himself and finished sixth.
The race had become so fast on the last laps - the last 1000 meters in 2: 26.5 minutes that the Olympic record, which was improved in the second run, was once again undercut by more than five seconds. The existing world record , however, was another ten seconds better.

For Lasse Virén it was the second Olympic victory in Munich. A week earlier, he had triumphed over 10,000 meters.

In the 13th Olympic final, Lasse Virén won the sixth gold medal for Finland over 5000 meters .

Split times
Intermediate mark	Meanwhile	Leading	1000 m time
1000 m	2: 46.3 min	Nikolai Sviridov	2: 46.3 min
2000 m	5: 32.6 min	Let Virén	2: 46.3 min
3000 m	8: 20.2 min	Javier Álvarez	2: 47.6 min
4000 m	10: 59.9 min	Steve Prefontaine	2: 39.7 min
5000 m	13: 26.4 min	Let Virén	2: 26.5 min

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Let Virén	Finland	13: 26.42 min	OR
2	Mohamed Gammoudi	Tunisia	13: 27.33 min
3	Ian Stewart	Great Britain	13: 27.61 min
4th	Steve Prefontaine	United States	13: 28.25 min
5	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium	13: 30.82 min
6th	Harald Norpoth	BR Germany	13: 32.58 min
7th	By hall	Norway	13: 34.38 min
8th	Nikolai Sviridov	Soviet Union	13: 39.31 min
9	Frank Eisenberg	GDR	13: 40.84 min
10	Javier Álvarez	Spain	13: 41.83 min
11	Ian McCafferty	Great Britain	13: 43.20 min
12	David Bedford	Great Britain	13: 43.22 min
13	Juha Väätäinen	Finland	13: 53.84 min
DNS	Mariano Haro	Spain

literature

• Werner Schneider / Sport-Informations-Dienst / Bertelsmann Sportredaktion, The Olympic Games 1972. Munich - Kiel - Sapporo, Bertelsmann-Verlag, Munich, Gütersloh, Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-570-04559-5 , p. 32f

Video

• 1972 Olympics 5000m , published December 2, 2007 on youtube.com, accessed November 19, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m
• Official report, Volume 3 "The competitions" , p. 52f, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 19, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 551 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 19, 2017
2. ↑ Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 43, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 19, 2017 
3. ↑ Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 52, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 19, 2017 
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 19, 2017
5. ↑ Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 53, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 19, 2017 
6. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 19, 2017