1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	56 athletes from 39 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 28, 1988 (preliminary round) September 29, 1988 (semi-finals) October 1, 1988 (final)
Medalist John Ngugi ( KEN )   Dieter Baumann ( FRG )   Hansjörg Kunze ( GDR )

The men's 5000 meter run at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held from September 28 to October 1, 1988 in three rounds in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 56 athletes took part.

The Kenyan John Ngugi became Olympic champion . He won ahead of Dieter Baumann from the Federal Republic of Germany and Hansjörg Kunze from the GDR.

The Swiss Pierre Délèze and the Austrian Dietmar Millonig both failed in the preliminary round. Runners from Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Saïd Aouita ( Morocco )	13:05:59 min	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987		13: 26.44 min	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Jack Buckner ( Great Britain )	13: 10.15 min	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Arturo Barrios ( Mexico )	13: 31.40 min	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Pablo Cerón ( Mexico )	14:06:20 min	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Rolando Vera ( Ecuador )	14: 03.00 min	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama ( Qatar )	14: 09.29 min	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Brahim Boutayeb ( Morocco )	13: 49.69 min	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	12: 58.39 min	Saïd Aouita ( Morocco )	Rome , Italy	July 22, 1987
Olympic record	13:05:59 min		Los Angeles final , USA	August 11, 1984

Preliminary round

Date: September 28, 1988

The athletes competed in a total of four heats. The first seven athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the nine fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Gary Staines	Great Britain	13: 47.81 min
2	Sydney Maree	United States	13: 47.85 min
3	Andrew Lloyd	Australia	13: 47.87 min
4th	Domingos Castro	Portugal	13: 47.91 min
5	John Ngugi	Kenya	13: 47.93 min
6th	Mauricio González	Mexico	13: 47.98 min
7th	John Doherty	Ireland	13: 47.99 min
8th	Paul Arpin	France	13: 48.03 min
9	Alejandro Gomez	Spain	13: 51.60 min
10	Dietmar Millonig	Austria	14: 01.92 min
11	Pierre Délèze	Switzerland	14: 12.79 min
12	Carey Nelson	Canada	14: 15.94 min
13	Aboukar Hassan Adani	Somalia	14: 37.98 min
14th	Ali Ismael Hassan	Djibouti	14: 45.40 min
15th	Hari Bahadur Rokaya	Kingdom of Nepal	14: 53.75 min
16	Kaleka Mutoke	Zaire	14: 56.33 min
17th	Ian Gray	Belize	15: 33.24 min
18th	Abdel Rahman Massad	Sudan	15: 50.91 min
19th	Manuel Rondo	Equatorial Guinea	16: 44.13 min

Forward 2

Davendra Singh from Fiji , who was registered for the run , did not start.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Eamonn Martin	Great Britain	13: 58.00 min
2	Salvatore Antibo	Italy	13: 58.08 min
3	Cyrille Laventure	France	13: 58.19 min
4th	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya	13: 58.24 min
5	Doug Padilla	United States	13: 58.45 min
6th	Dieter Baumann	BR Germany	13: 58.46 min
7th	Abel Antón	Spain	13: 58.59 min
8th	Fernando Couto	Portugal	13: 58.72 min
9	Arturo Barrios	Mexico	13: 59.04 min
10	Frank O'Mara	Ireland	13: 59.46 min
11	Shuichi Yoneshige	Japan	13: 59.68 min
12	Stanley Mandebele	Zimbabwe	14: 03.97 min
13	Kim Yeong-gil	South Korea	14: 09.45 min
14th	Edward Nabunone	Indonesia	14: 19.40 min
15th	George Mambosasa	Malawi	14: 30.01 min
16	Anwar Al-Harazi	North Yemen	14: 49.25 min
17th	Mohamed Ould Khalifa	Mauritania	15: 18.64 min
DNF	Lars Ove Strømø	Norway

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Stefano Mei	Italy	13: 42.96 min
2	Charles Cheruiyot	Kenya	13: 43.11 min
3	Pascal Thiébaut	France	13: 43.28 min
4th	Vincent Rousseau	Belgium	13: 43.38 min
5	Evgeni Ignatov	Bulgaria	13: 43.42 min
6th	Paul Williams	Canada	13: 43.43 min
7th	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	13: 43.48 min
8th	Jonny Danielsson	Sweden	13: 43.54 min
9	José Regalo	Portugal	13: 43.59 min
10	Jack Buckner	Great Britain	13: 43.69 min
11	Hansjörg Kunze	GDR	13: 44.34 min
12	Mikhail Dasko	Soviet Union	13: 45.25 min
13	Terry Brahm	United States	13: 45.28 min
14th	Marcos Barreto	Mexico	13: 45.82 min
15th	Juma Mnyampanda	Tanzania	14:05.09 min
16	Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama	Qatar	14:06:20 min
17th	Mathias Ntawulikura	Rwanda	14: 08.84 min
18th	Farouk Ahmed Sayed	South Yemen	15: 11.20 min
19th	Rondji Niakaken	Chad	15: 42.73 min

Semifinals

Date: September 29, 1988

The first six athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the three fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , advanced. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Domingos Castro	Portugal	13: 22.44 min
2	Sydney Maree	United States	13: 22.61 min
3	Dieter Baumann	BR Germany	13: 22.71 min
4th	Pascal Thiébaut	France	13: 22.71 min
5	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya	13: 22.85 min
6th	Hansjörg Kunze	GDR	13: 23.04 min
7th	Jack Buckner	Great Britain	13: 23.17 min
8th	Salvatore Antibo	Italy	13: 25.64 min
9	Cyrille Laventure	France	13: 29.92 min
10	Charles Cheruiyot	Kenya	13: 38.44 min
11	Alejandro Gomez	Spain	13: 41.73 min
12	Andrew Lloyd	Australia	13: 42.49 min
13	Paul Williams	Canada	13: 44.57 min
14th	Marcos Barreto	Mexico	13: 53.93 min
15th	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	14: 02.16 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Stefano Mei	Italy	13: 24.20 min
2	John Ngugi	Kenya	13: 24.43 min
3	José Regalo	Portugal	13: 24.48 min
4th	Gary Staines	Great Britain	13: 24.51 min
5	John Doherty	Ireland	13: 24.61 min
6th	Evgeni Ignatov	Bulgaria	13: 24.76 min
7th	Paul Arpin	France	13: 24.82 min
8th	Jonny Danielsson	Sweden	13: 25.25 min
9	Eamonn Martin	Great Britain	13: 26.26 min
10	Mauricio González	Mexico	13: 32.52 min
11	Doug Padilla	United States	13: 37.11 min
12	Abel Antón	Spain	13: 39.13 min
13	Mikhail Dasko	Soviet Union	13: 43.65 min
14th	Vincent Rousseau	Belgium	14: 03.74 min
15th	Terry Brahm	United States	14:04.12 min

final

Hansjörg Kunze from the GDR, winner of the bronze medal

Date: October 1, 1988

Two Kenyans, two British, two French and two Portuguese had qualified for the final on October 1st. The field was completed by one participant each from the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the USA.

World champion and world record holder Saïd Aouita from Morocco, who was also Olympic champion in 1984 , had not submitted a report for the competition. The Kenyan cross country champion John Ngugi was now at the top of the circle of favorites . Other medal candidates were World Cup third and European champion Jack Buckner from Great Britain, vice world champion Domingos Castro from Portugal and vice European champion Stefano Mei from Italy.

The field remained closed together for about two and a half laps. At 1000 meters, Ngugi took the initiative, increased the pace and, above all, with a very fast 1000 meters between kilometers one and two, he had a lead of around thirty meters. Castro started to pursue at 3000 meters and broke away more and more from the remaining field. He worked for himself about twenty yards, but couldn't get close to Ngugi. At 4000 meters he was still ahead with about thirty meters at his now consistently high speed. In the chasing field, the German Dieter Baumann had meanwhile taken the lead and put pressure on to perhaps close the gap to Castro. The now small group behind Ngugi and Castro fell apart, only GDR runner Hansjörg Kunze could keep up with Baumann. So it went into the last round. John Ngugi showed no weakness, he tightened again and became Olympic champion by a clear margin. Meanwhile, Castro's distance to Baumann and Kunze was fading. It was no longer enough for the Portuguese, Dieter Baumann - silver - and Hansjörg Kunze - bronze - caught him in the last fifty meters, Domingos Castro came fourth. The American Sydney Maree followed at a considerable distance in fifth and British Jack Buckner in sixth.

John Ngugi ran the first Kenyan Olympic victory over 5000 meters .

Split times
Intermediate mark	Meanwhile	Leading	1000 m time
1000 m	2: 42.75 min	John Ngugi	2: 42.75 min
2000 m	5: 14.96 min	John Ngugi	2: 32.21 min
3000 m	7: 56.12 min	John Ngugi	2: 41.16 min
4000 m	10: 36.21 min	John Ngugi	2: 40.09 min
5000 m	13: 11.70 min	John Ngugi	2: 31.61 min

Bottom line

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Ngugi	Kenya	13: 11.70 min
2	Dieter Baumann	BR Germany	13: 15.52 min
3	Hansjörg Kunze	GDR	13: 15.73 min
4th	Domingos Castro	Portugal	13: 16.09 min
5	Sydney Maree	United States	13: 23.69 min
6th	Jack Buckner	Great Britain	13: 23.85 min
7th	Stefano Mei	Italy	13: 26.17 min
8th	Evgeni Ignatov	Bulgaria	13: 26.41 min
9	John Doherty	Ireland	13: 27.71 min
10	Jonny Danielsson	Sweden	13: 30.44 min
11	Pascal Thiébaut	France	13: 31.99 min
12	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya	13: 52.01 min
13	Gary Staines	Great Britain	13: 55.00 min
14th	Paul Arpin	France	14: 13.19 min
DNF	José Regalo	Portugal

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed January 24, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 227–229, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018

Video

• 5000m Final - 1988 , published April 5, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed January 24, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 672 , accessed on January 24, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 227f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018
3. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul, volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 228f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018
4. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 229, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018