1976 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	35 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Montreal Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 28, 1976 (preliminary round) July 30, 1976 (final)
Medalist Lasse Virén ( FIN )   Dick Quax ( NZL )   Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand ( FRG )

The men's 5000-meter run at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal was held on July 28 and 30, 1976 in the Montreal Olympic Stadium. 35 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Finnish Olympic champion of 1972 Lasse Virén . The New Zealander Dick Quax won the silver medal, the bronze medal went to Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand from the Federal Republic of Germany.

In addition to the medalist Hildenbrand, Detlef Uhlemann also competed for the Federal Republic of Germany, finishing tenth in the final.
The Swiss Markus Ryffel was eliminated in the preliminary round.

Runners from the GDR, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	13: 13.0 min	Emiel Puttemans ( Belgium )	Brussels , Belgium	20th September 1972
Olympic record	13: 26.42 min	Lasse Virén ( Finland )	Final of Munich , Federal Republic of Germany	September 10, 1972

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in three heats on July 28th. The four best runners and the following two fastest reached the final on July 30th.

Time schedule

July 28, 3:40 p.m .: Prelim

July 30, 5:50 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Montreal time ( UTC − 5 )

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

Preliminary round

Date: July 28, 1976, from 3:40 p.m.

Forward 1

Dick Quax, New Zealand, Silver Medal Winner

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dick Quax	New Zealand	13: 30.85 min
2	Paul Geis	United States	13: 32.36 min
3	Boris Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	13: 32.78 min
4th	Let Virén	Finland	13: 33.39 min
5	Jean-Marie Conrath	France	13: 34.39 min
6th	Luis Hernández	Mexico	13: 36.42 min
7th	Ilie Floroiu	Romania	13: 37.09 min
8th	Toshiaki Kamata	Japan	13: 38.22 min
9	Dave Black	Great Britain	13: 39.37 min
10	Edmundo Warnke	Chile	13: 39.69 min
11	Eddie Leddy	Ireland	13: 40.54 min
12	Fernando Cerrada	Spain	13: 43.89 min
13	Dieudonné LaMothe	Haiti	18: 50.07 min
DNF	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium

Sixth placed Belgian Willy Polleunis

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Willy Polleunis	Belgium	13: 45.24 min
2	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	13: 45.77 min
3	Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand	BR Germany	13: 45.85 min
4th	Ian Stewart	Belgium	3: 38.32 min
5	Rodolfo Gomez	Mexico	13: 46.23 min
6th	Grant McLaren	Canada	13: 46.40 min
7th	Duncan MacDonald	United States	13: 47.14 min
8th	Domingo Tibaduiza	Colombia	13: 49.49 min
9	Venanzio Ortis	Italy	13: 52.40 min
10	Hossein Rabbi	Iran	14: 47.12 min
11	John Kokinai	Papua New Guinea	14: 58.33 min
DNS	Knut Børø	Norway
	David Fitzsimons	Australia
	Carlos Lopes	Portugal

Willy Polleunis and Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand were disqualified immediately after the race because of an alleged handicap of the Canadian Grant McLaren. The team leaders concerned from Belgium and the Federal Republic of Germany lodged a complaint, which was granted. Polleunis was again classified as the preliminary winner and Hildenbrand as third place.

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	13: 20.34 min	OR
2	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	13: 20.48 min
3	Knut Kvalheim	Norway	13: 20.60 min
4th	Enn Sellik	Soviet Union	13: 20.81 min
5	Detlef Uhlemann	BR Germany	13: 21.08 min
6th	Aniceto Simões	Portugal	13: 21.93 min
7th	Leave Orimus	Finland	13: 23.43 min
8th	Marc Smet	Belgium	13: 23.76 min
9	Richard Buerkle	United States	13: 29.01 min
10	Jacky Boxberger	France	13: 36.94 min
11	Markus Ryffel	Switzerland	13: 46.08 min
DNS	Shetwy Al-Bishy	Saudi Arabia
	José Andrade da Silva	Brazil
	Mohamed Benbaraka	Morocco

final

Olympic champion Lasse Virén, Finland

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Let Virén	Finland	13: 24.76 min
2	Dick Quax	New Zealand	13: 25.16 min
3	Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand	BR Germany	13: 25.38 min
4th	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	13: 25.50 min
5	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	13: 26.19 min
6th	Willy Polleunis	Belgium	13: 26.99 min
7th	Ian Stewart	Great Britain	13: 27.65 min
8th	Aniceto Simões	Portugal	13: 29.38 min
9	Knut Kvalheim	Norway	13: 30.33 min
10	Detlef Uhlemann	BR Germany	13: 31.07 min
11	Enn Sellik	Soviet Union	13: 36.72 min
12	Paul Geis	United States	13: 42.51 min
13	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	13: 46.61 min
DNF	Boris Kuznetsov	Soviet Union

Date: July 30, 1976, 5:15 p.m.

The 1972 Olympic champion , Lasse Virén, who was confronted with blood doping allegations and had successfully repeated his Olympic victory over 10,000 meters four days earlier , wanted to be the first athlete to achieve the double over 5000 and 10,000 meters a second time. Brendan Foster had already set a new Olympic record with 13: 20.34 minutes . This time was not reached in the final, there the pace only got really fast again at the end. In addition to Virén and Foster, there was a larger circle of medal contenders. They included the two New Zealanders Dick Quax and Rodney Dixon, with Ian Stewart another Brit - he was European champion in 1969 - as well as the German Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand, who had a top time in the Olympic year.

Brendan Foster took the lead early in the final. His compatriot Ian Stewart ran behind him. At 2000 meters - intermediate time 5: 26.39 min - Virén took the lead for the next 1000 meters. Five laps before the end - intermediate time 3000 meters: 8: 16.23 min - Foster went forward again. The field was still completely together. After another 400 meters, Hildenbrand took the lead, before Virén took command again just under 1100 meters from the finish. The 4000 meter mark was passed in 10: 55.41 minutes. In the penultimate lap, the seventh-placed Soviet runner Boris Kuznetsov fell, creating a gap between the six runners in the front. The Portuguese Aniceto Simões was able to catch up again, so that a group of seven runners with Virén in the lead went into the last lap. In the finish curve, four athletes were still eligible for the medals. Virén was attacked by Hildenbrand, behind which Quax, Dixon and Foster fought. So it went into the home straight. Lasse Virén was also the fastest in this race and became Olympic champion. Dick Quax worked his way up to second place and won the silver medal. Shortly before the finish line, Rodney Dixon was on Bronze Square. But with the last steps Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand stormed past him. He fell but had reached the finish and won the bronze medal. The last lap was run in about 55 seconds.

The development of the race is clear from the intermediate times:

first / second 1000 meter section: average approx. 2: 43.2 min - third 1000 meter section: 3: 09.7 min - fourth 1000 meter section: 2: 39.4 min - fifth 1000- Meter section: 2: 29.3 min

They ran very quickly up to the 2000 meter mark, then the pace slowed down drastically. With the tour through Hildenbrand it got really fast again. On the last 1000 meters the runners pushed again enormously.

literature

• Ernst Huberty / Willy B. Wange, The Olympic Games Montreal Innsbruck 1976, Lingen-Verlag, Cologne 1976, p. 220 (description) / p. 223 (result)

Video

• 1976 Olympics 5000m , published October 18, 2007 on youtube.com, accessed December 12, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed December 12, 2017
• Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 56f, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017
• Foreign blood doping This is how tuning works for the dying , Spiegel Online, accessed on December 12, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 551 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 12 December 2017
2. ↑ Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 23, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b} Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 57, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed December 12, 2017
5. ↑ 1972 - 1984: Anabolic steroids consumption until death on lawm.sportschau.de, accessed on December 12, 2017
6. ↑ SportsReference , accessed December 12, 2017