1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	37 athletes from 23 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1996 (preliminary round) August 1, 1996 (semi-finals) August 3, 1996 (final)
Medalist Vénuste Niyongabo ( BDI )   Paul Bitok ( KEN )   Khalid Boulami ( MAR )

The men's 5000-meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was held on July 31 and August 1 and 3, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 37 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Vénuste Niyongabo from Burundi. He won ahead of the Kenyan Paul Bitok and the Moroccan Khalid Boulami .

Dieter Baumann and Stéphane Franke started for Germany . Both qualified for the final. Baumann was fourth, Franke fourteenth.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1992	Dieter Baumann ( Germany )	13: 12.52 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	Ismael Kirui ( Kenya )	13: 16.77 min	Gothenburg 1995
European Champion 1994	Dieter Baumann ( Germany )	13: 36.93 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American champion 1995	Armando Quintanilla ( Mexico )	13: 30.35 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champions 1995	Sergio Jiménez ( Mexico )	14: 32.68 min	Guatemala City 1995
South American Champion 1995	Ronaldo da Costa ( Brazil )	13: 51.66 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Saad Shaddad Al-Asmari ( Saudi Arabia )	14: 01.43 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Paul Koech ( Kenya )	13: 35.13 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania Champion 1994	Jason Cameron ( New Zealand )	14: 44.62 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	12: 44.39 min	Haile Gebrselassie ( Ethiopia )	Zurich , Switzerland	August 16, 1995
Olympic record	13:05:59 min	Saïd Aouita ( Morocco )	Los Angeles final , USA	August 11, 1984

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

Preliminary round

July 31, 1996, from 9:40 p.m.

The athletes competed in a total of three heats. The first eight long distance runners qualified for the semi-finals. In addition, the six fastest drivers, 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 (min)	annotation
1	Ismaïl Sghyr	Morocco	14: 02.71
2	Shem Kororia	Kenya	14: 02.75
3	Réda petrol	Algeria	14: 03.06
4th	Gennaro Di Napoli	Italy	14: 03.56
5	Shaun Creighton	Australia	14: 04.08
6th	Shadrack Hoff	South Africa	14: 05.97
7th	Anacleto Jiménez	Spain	14: 16.57
8th	José Ramos	Portugal	14: 17.26
9	Matt Giusto	United States	14: 30.76
10	William Roldan	Colombia	14: 39.50
11	Sid'Ahmed Ould Mohamedou	Mauritania	15: 29.16
DNS	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
	Armando Quintanilla	Mexico

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Fita Bayisa	Ethiopia	13: 50.61
2	Brahim Lahlafi	Morocco	13: 51.25
3	Tom Nyariki	Kenya	13: 51.47
4th	Enrique Molina	Spain	13: 51.55
5	Aïssa Belaout	Algeria	13: 51.96
6th	Dieter Baumann	Germany	13: 52.00
7th	John Nuttall	Great Britain	13: 52.16
8th	Jonathan Wyatt	New Zealand	13: 52.56
9	Jim Spivey	United States	13: 53.16
10	Cormac Finnerty	Ireland	13: 54.01
11	Julian Paynter	Australia	14: 00.25
12	Adalberto García	Brazil	14: 28.64
13	Henry Moyo	Malawi	14: 30.53
DNS	Aloÿs Nizigama	Burundi

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	John Morapedi	South Africa	13: 54.30
2	Paul Bitok	Kenya	13: 54.45
3	Venuste Niyongabo	Burundi	13: 54.53
4th	Bob Kennedy	United States	13: 54.57
5	Khalid Boulami	Morocco	13: 54.72
6th	Miroslav Vanko	Slovakia	13: 54.88
7th	Assefa Mezgebu	Ethiopia	13: 54.89
8th	Stefano Baldini	Italy	13: 55.41
9	Manuel Pancorbo	Spain	13: 57.42
10	Stéphane Franke	Germany	14: 06.34
11	Luís Jesus	Portugal	14: 08.87
12	Khamis Abdullah Seifeddine	Sudan	14: 15.21
13	Aboukar Hassan Adani	Somalia	15: 19.80
DNS	Alyan Al-Qahtani	Saudi Arabia

Semifinals

August 1, 1996, from 9:15 p.m.

From the two semi-finals, the first six athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the three fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified participants are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Shem Kororia	Kenya	13: 27.50
2	Paul Bitok	Kenya	13: 27.61
3	Brahim Lahlafi	Morocco	13: 27.73
4th	Bob Kennedy	United States	13: 27.90
5	Gennaro Di Napoli	Italy	13: 28.80
6th	Khalid Boulami	Morocco	13: 29.72
7th	Fita Bayisa	Ethiopia	13: 30.88
8th	Réda petrol	Algeria	13: 37.52
9	Stéphane Franke	Germany	13: 40.94
10	Jonathan Wyatt	New Zealand	13: 47.81
11	Anacleto Jiménez	Spain	13: 50.90
12	Miroslav Vanko	Slovakia	13: 51.45
13	John Morapedi	South Africa	13: 54.43
14th	Shaun Creighton	Australia	13: 55.23
15th	José Ramos	Portugal	14: 24.81

Run 2

The Italian Stefano Baldini was eliminated in the semifinals as eighth of his run

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Tom Nyariki	Kenya	14: 03.21
2	Venuste Niyongabo	Burundi	14: 03.58
3	Dieter Baumann	Germany	14: 03.75
4th	Enrique Molina	Spain	14: 04.08
5	Ismaïl Sghyr	Morocco	14: 04.23
6th	Aïssa Belaout	Algeria	14: 04.56
7th	Assefa Mezgebu	Ethiopia	14: 05.48
8th	Stefano Baldini	Italy	14: 06.45
9	John Nuttall	Great Britain	14: 08.39
10	Cormac Finnerty	Ireland	14: 08.88
11	Shadrack Hoff	South Africa	14: 16.14
12	Julian Paynter	Australia	14: 23.60
13	Jim Spivey	United States	14: 27.72
14th	Manuel Pancorbo	Spain	14: 39.64
DNS	Luís Jesus	Portugal

final

August 3, 1996

All three Kenyans and all three Moroccans had qualified for the final. They ran against two Germans and two Algerians as well as one participant each from Ethiopia, Burundi, Italy, Spain and the USA.

The reigning world champion , Ismael Kirui from Kenya, was not there. The world record holder Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia was also absent. Because of the track that was too hard for long distance runners, his feet were so sore during his Olympic victory over 10,000 meters that a start was not possible just a few days later. The group of favorites mainly included the athletes who had been ahead at the previous year's World Championships. These were the three Moroccans Khalid Boulami, Vice World Champion, Ismaïl Sghyr, World Cup fourth, and Brahim Lahlafi, World Cup fifth, the Kenyan World Cup third Shem Kororia and the US World Cup seventh Bob Kennedy. There were also the 1992 Olympic champion and 1994 European champion Dieter Baumann from Germany and the silver medalist from Barcelona Paul Bitok. Another highly regarded medal candidate was Vénuste Niyongabo from Burundi, who was more of a 1500-meter runner and had only completed two 5000-meter races before Atlanta.

A brisk pace was run in the finale, which began to accelerate from the second kilometer onwards. However, there were no world record intermediate times. The field stayed together for a long time and was led by the Kenyans. Time and again there was a small gap between the leaders Kororia or Nyariki and their pursuers. With two laps to go, Kennedy took the initiative and now accelerated the pace. So the field spread more and more. The first pursuers were Niyongabo and Bitok. Shortly before the start of the last lap, Niyongabo passed Kennedy and it got even faster. The runner from Burundi now set himself apart from his competitors. Behind him there was a group of three with Bitok, Boulami and Baumann. So it went to the home straight. Vénuste Niyongabo brought his lead across the finish line without endangering himself. Like four years ago, Paul Bitok won the silver medal. Baumann tried everything again to get past Boulami, but did not succeed. Bronze went to Khalid Boulami, Dieter Baumann came fourth ahead of Tom Nyariki and Bob Kennedy.

Vénuste Niyongabo was the first medalist and also the first ever Olympic champion from Burundi.

Split times
Intermediate mark	Meanwhile	Leading	1000 m time
1000 m	2: 45.40 min	Tom Nyariki in front of the closed field	2: 45.40 min
2000 m	5: 20.87 min	Shem Kororia in front of the closed field	2: 35.47 min
3000 m	8:00:05 min	Shem Kororia in front of the closed field	2: 39.18 min
4000 m	10: 40.42 min	Tom Nyariki in front of the closed field	2: 40.37 min
5000 m	13: 07.96 min	Venuste Niyongabo	2: 27.54 min

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Venuste Niyongabo	Burundi	13: 07.96
2	Paul Bitok	Kenya	13: 08.16
3	Khalid Boulami	Morocco	13: 08.37
4th	Dieter Baumann	Germany	13: 08.81
5	Tom Nyariki	Kenya	13: 12.29
6th	Bob Kennedy	United States	13: 12.35
7th	Enrique Molina	Spain	13: 12.91
8th	Brahim Lahlafi	Morocco	13: 13.26
9	Shem Kororia	Kenya	13: 14.63
10	Fita Bayisa	Ethiopia	13: 18.30
11	Ismaïl Sghyr	Morocco	13: 22.89
12	Gennaro Di Napoli	Italy	13: 28.36
13	Réda petrol	Algeria	13: 42.34
14th	Stéphane Franke	Germany	13: 44.64
15th	Aïssa Belaout	Algeria	14: 06.52

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 33f

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed February 27, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , Athletics Results: p. 78, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on February 27, 2018

Video

• Men's 5000m Atlanta Olympics 1996 , published June 22, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed February 27, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 672 , accessed on February 27, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Results athletics: p. 78, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on February 27, 2018