Olympic Summer Games 2008 / Athletics - 5000 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Women
place	Beijing National Stadium
Participants	31 athletes from 19 countries
Competition phase	August 19 and 22, 2008
Medalists
gold	Tirunesh Dibaba ( ETH )
silver	Meseret Defar ( ETH )
bronze	Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet ( KEN )

The 5000-meter run at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was held on August 19 and 22, 2008 in the National Stadium. 31 athletes took part.

There was a one-two Ethiopian victory. Tirunesh Dibaba won the gold medal, silver went to Meseret Defar . Bronze went to the Kenyan Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet .

Current titleholders

Olympic Champion 2004	Meseret Defar ( Ethiopia )	14: 45.65 min	Athens 2004
World Champion 2007		14: 47.91 min	Osaka 2007
European Champion 2006	Marta Domínguez ( Spain )	14: 56.18 min	Gothenburg 2006
Pan American Champion 2007	Megan Metcalfe ( Canada )	15: 35.78 min	Rio de Janeiro 2007
Central America and Caribbean champion 2008	Nora Leticia Rocha ( Mexico )	16: 41.27 min	Cali 2008
South American Champion 2007	Ednalva da Silva ( Brazil )	16:09.96 min	São Paulo 2007
Asian Champion 2007	Kareema Saleh Jasim ( Bahrain )	16: 40.87 min	Amman 2007
Africa Champion 2008	Meselech Melkamu ( Ethiopia )	15: 49.81 min	Addis Ababa 2008
Oceania Champion 2008	Nicole Layson ( Guam )	21: 11.76 min	Saipan 2008

Existing records

World record	14: 11.15 min	Tirunesh Dibaba ( Ethiopia )	Oslo , Norway	June 6, 2008
Olympic record	14: 40.79 min	Gabriela Szabo ( Romania )	Sydney final , Australia	September 25, 2000

doping

Like over 10,000 meters , silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse was stripped of her medal for doping abuse in March 2017 . The following runners each moved up one rank. The Japanese Yuriko Kobayashi, who otherwise could have participated in the final, was particularly disadvantaged.

There were two preliminary runs. The first six of each run - highlighted in light blue - and the next three fastest athletes - highlighted in light green - qualified for the quarter-finals.

As fourteenth of the first heat, the Portuguese Jéssica Augusto did not reach the final

The Japanese Kayoko Fukushi is eliminated in the faster of the two heats as seventh of her run. Here as third place in the 2013 World Championships in the marathon.

Forward 1

August 19, 2008 , 7:35 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia	15: 09.89 min
2	Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet	Kenya	15: 10.37 min
3	Alemitu Bekele	Turkey	15: 10.92 min
4th	Meselech Melkamu	Ethiopia	15: 11.21 min
5	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina	Russia	15: 11.46 min
6th	Jennifer Rhines	United States	15: 15.12 min
7th	Yuriko Kobayashi	Japan	15: 15.87 min	actually qualified for the final
8th	Simret Sultan	Eritrea	15: 16.25 min	NO
9	Volha Krautsova	Belarus	15: 21.85 min
10	Silvia Weissteiner	Italy	15: 23.45 min
11	Zhang Yingying	People's Republic of China	15: 23.81 min
12	Zakia Mrisho	Tanzania	15: 24.28 min
13	Dolores Checa	Spain	15: 31.22 min
14th	Jéssica Augusto	Portugal	16:05.71 min
15th	Lucia Chandamale	Malawi	16: 44.09 min
16	Celma Bonfim da Graça	Sao Tome and Principe	17: 25.99 min	NO

Forward 2

August 19, 2008 , 8:03 pm

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia	14: 56.32 min
2	Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot	Kenya	14: 57.27 min
3	Lilia Shobuchova	Russia	14: 57.77 min
4th	Priscah Jepleting Cherono	Kenya	14: 58.07 min
5	Shalane Flanagan	United States	14: 59.69 min
6th	Kara Goucher	United States	15: 00.98 min
7th	Megan Metcalfe	Canada	15: 11.23 min	PB
8th	Xue Fei	People's Republic of China	15: 13.25 min
9	Kayoko Fukushi	Japan	15: 20.46 min
10	Mariem Alaoui Selsouli	Morocco	15: 21.47 min
11	Yukiko Akaba	Japan	15: 38.30 min
12	Krisztina Papp	Hungary	16: 08.86 min
13	Francine Niyonizigiye	Burundi	17:08.44 min
DNF	Jelena Sadorozhnaya	Russia
DOP	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey	14: 58.79 min	in the final, later disqualified
DNS	Joanne Pavey	Great Britain

final

August 22, 2008 , 8:40 p.m.

The two Ethiopians Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar were clear favorites. Since 2003 they had shared the title wins at all major championships:
2003 - World Champion Dibaba
2004 - Olympic Champion Defar / Bronze for Dibaba
2005 - World Champion Dibaba / Vice World Champion Defar
2007 - World Champion Defar
In June of the Olympic year, Dibaba Defars set the world record by more than five seconds 14: 11.15 min improved. Dibaba, who was almost two years younger than her and had already won the 10,000 meter run a week earlier , entered the race as the slightly favored runner. Candidates for the medal behind the two Ethiopians were primarily the three Kenyans Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot as Vice World Champion, Priscah Jepleting Cherono as World Cup third and Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet as World Cup fourth as well as the third Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu, fifth of the 2007 and World Championships . Fourth from 2005. The participants from all other nations only started as outsiders.

In the final, three Ethiopians, three Kenyans and three Americans, two Russians and one runner each from China, Canada and Turkey were represented. Then there was the Turkish woman who was later disqualified for doping abuse .

This finals became the slowest since the women's discipline was introduced at the 1996 Olympics , but no less interesting. The first thousand meters were run in just under 3:40 minutes, a time that would not have been too fast even for a marathon . It got a little faster on the second and third kilometers, but even now it remained a very slow pace. The 3000 meter split was more than a minute slower than four years earlier in Athens . Accordingly, the field remained closed for a long time. Subsequently, Abeylegesse, who was later disqualified for doping reasons, increased the pace. With the Chinese Xue Fei and the Canadian Megan Metcalfe, the first runners lost touch with the field, although it was still not really fast. The fourth kilometer was completed in just under three minutes.

Over the last nine hundred meters Abeylegesse sought the decision with a long sprint. Nine athletes could still keep up. At the beginning of the last lap, Dibaba took the initiative and passed Abeylegesse with Defar in tow. Large gaps immediately appeared. On the back straight, Dibaba and Defar fought for victory. In the finish curve, Tirunesh Dibaba broke away from her last remaining opponents and also became the sovereign Olympic champion over 5000 meters . Silver went to her predecessor Meseret Defar, so there was a double victory for Ethiopia. Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet won bronze in front of Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot, Kenya took third and fourth place. As the best runner from a non-African country, the Russian Lilija Schobuchowa came fifth ahead of Alemitu Bekele, who started for Turkey and also came from Ethiopia.

Tirunesh Dibaba made herself one of the most successful athletes at these Olympic Games with her second gold medal. It was the second consecutive Olympic victory for Ethiopia over this distance.

Split times
Intermediate mark	Meanwhile	Leading	1000 m time
1000 m	3: 39.20 min	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina with the closed field	3: 39.20 min
2000 m	6: 45.41 min	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina with the closed field	3: 06.21 min
3000 m	9: 58.13 min	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina with the closed field	3: 02.72 min
4000 m	13: 04.77 min	Tirunesh Dibaba with a large top group	2: 56.64 min
5000 m	15: 41.40 min	Tirunesh Dibaba	2: 36.63 min

result

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia	15: 41.40 min
2	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia	15: 44.12 min
3	Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet	Kenya	15: 44.96 min
4th	Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot	Kenya	15: 46.32 min
5	Lilia Shobuchova	Russia	15: 46.62 min
6th	Alemitu Bekele	Turkey	15: 48.48 min
7th	Meselech Melkamu	Ethiopia	15: 49.03 min
8th	Kara Goucher	United States	15: 49.39 min
9	Shalane Flanagan	United States	15: 50.80 min
10	Priscah Jepleting Cherono	Kenya	15: 51.78 min
11	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina	Russia	15: 56.79 min
12	Xue Fei	People's Republic of China	16: 09.84 min
13	Jennifer Rhines	United States	16: 34.63 min
14th	Megan Metcalfe	Canada	17: 06.82 min
DOP	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey	14: 58.79 min

• 

  Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia

• 

  Silver medalist Meseret Defar, also from Ethiopia

• 

  Bronze medal for the Kenyan Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet - right

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  The Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot Jepkemoi wins the Olympics

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  Fifth place for the Russian Lilija Schobuchowa

• 

  Alemitu Bekele, who started for Turkey, was sixth in the Olympics

• 

  The seventh placed Ethiopian Meselch Melkamu

• 

  The American Kara Goucher is eighth

• 

  Shallane Flanagan, also USA, comes in ninth place

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  The Russian Gulnara Samitowa-Galkina is Olympic tenth

• 

  American Jennifer Rhines reached thirteenth place in the final

Web links

• SportsReference 5000m women , accessed June 23, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website, accessed on June 23, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on June 23, 2018

Video

• Tirunesh Dibaba - 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Womens 5000m Final full video , posted September 12, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed June 23, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Campeonato CAC de Atletismo 2008 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 18, 2018
2. ↑ Campeonato Sudamericano de Atletismo 2007 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 18, 2018
3. ↑ 17th Asian Athletics Championship 2007 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2017 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. at athleticsasia.org (PDF, 417 KB), accessed June 18, 2018 
4. ↑ Oceania Area Championships - 25/06/2008 to 28/06/2008 on athletics-oceania.com (PDF, 130 KB), accessed on June 18, 2018
5. ↑ IAAF World Records, 5000 m women , accessed on June 23, 2018
6. ↑ ^{a b} 1,500 m runner Bulut loses Olympic gold from 2012 , Abeylegesse's offenses and consequences named in the last section of the article, on sport.orf.at, March 29, 2017, accessed on June 23, 2018