Olympic Summer Games 2012 / Athletics - 5000 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	36 athletes from 22 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium London
Competition phase	August 7, 2012 (preliminary round) ; August 10, 2012 (final)
	Medalists
	Meseret Defar ( ETH )
	Vivian Cheruiyot ( KEN )
	Tirunesh Dibaba ( ETH )

The women's 5000 meter run at the 2012 London Olympics was held on August 7th and 10th, 2012 at the London Olympic Stadium. 36 athletes took part.

The Ethiopian Meseret Defar became Olympic champion . The Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot won the silver medal ahead of the Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba .

Athletes from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic Champion	Tirunesh Dibaba ( Ethiopia ) Ethiopia	15: 41.40 min	Beijing 2008
world champion	Vivian Cheruiyot ( Kenya ) Kenya	14: 55.36 min	Daegu 2011
European champion	Olga Golowkina ( Russia ) Russia	15: 11.70 min	Helsinki 2012
Central America and Caribbean champion	Marisol Romero ( Mexico ) Mexico	16: 05.68 min	Mayagüez 2011
South America Champion	Fabiana Cristine da Silva ( Brazil ) Brazil	15: 39.67 min	Buenos Aires 2011
Asian champion	Tejitu Daba ( Bahrain ) Bahrain	15: 22.48 min	Kobe 2011
African champion	Gladys Cherono ( Kenya ) Kenya	15: 40.04 min	Porto-Novo 2012
Oceania champion	Elodie Mevel ( French Polynesia ) French Polynesia	20: 27.63 min	Cairns 2012

Existing records

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

Note: All times in this post are given according to London local time ( UTC ± 0 ).

leader

Two preliminary runs were carried out. The first five athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the five fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

Scene from preliminary 1:
Tirunesh Dibaba in front of Viola Kibiwot and Meseret Defar

August 7, 2012, 10:55 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
0 1	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia Ethiopia	14: 58.48
0 2	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia Ethiopia	14: 58.70
0 3	Viola Kibiwot	Kenya Kenya	14: 59.31
0 4th	Olga Golovkina	Russia Russia	15: 05.26
0 5	Julie Culley	United States United States	15: 05.38
0 6th	Tejitu Daba	Bahrain Bahrain	15: 05.59
0 7th	Silvia Weissteiner	Italy Italy	15: 06.81
0 8th	Kayoko Fukushi	Japan Japan	15: 09.31
0 9	Barbara Parker	United Kingdom Great Britain	15: 12.81
10	Fionnuala Britton	Ireland Ireland	15: 12.97
11	Lyudmyla Kovalenko	Ukraine Ukraine	15: 18.60
12	Judith Plá	Spain Spain	15: 20.39
13	Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal	Norway Norway	15: 24.86	PB
14th	Dudu Karakaya	Turkey Turkey	15: 28.32
15th	Eloise Wellings	Australia Australia	15: 35.53
16	Sandra Lopez	Mexico Mexico	15: 55.16
DNF	Nadia Noujani	Morocco Morocco
DNS	Sara Moreira	Portugal Portugal

Forward 2

Scene from preroll 2:
Huddle in front of Bleasdale, Burka, Cheruiyot, Kipyego, Nagowizina, Pavey, Eshete and Romagnolo

August 7, 2012, 11:19 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
0 1	Wear burqa	Ethiopia Ethiopia	15: 01.44
0 2	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya Kenya	15: 01.54
0 3	Sally Kipyego	Kenya Kenya	15: 01.87
0 4th	Julia Bleasdale	United Kingdom Great Britain	15:02.00
0 5	Molly Huddle	United States United States	15: 02.26
0 6th	Jelena Nagowizina	Russia Russia	15: 02.80	PB
0 7th	Joanne Pavey	United Kingdom Great Britain	15: 02.84
0 8th	Shitaye Eshete	Bahrain Bahrain	15: 05.48
0 9	Elena Romagnolo	Italy Italy	15: 06.38
10	Hitomi Niiya	Japan Japan	15: 10.20
11	Almensh Belete	Belgium Belgium	15: 10.24
12	Kim Conley	United States United States	15: 14.48
13	Mika Yoshikawa	Japan Japan	15: 16.77
14th	Nadia Ejjafini	Italy Italy	15: 24.70
15th	Sheila Reid	Canada Canada	15: 27.41
16	Zakia Mrisho	Tanzania Tanzania	15: 39.58
17th	Layes Abdullaeva	Azerbaijan Azerbaijan	15: 45.69
18th	Roxana Elisabeta Birca	Romania Romania	16: 01.04

final

August 10, 2012, 8:05 pm

In the final there were three Ethiopians and three Kenyans, two athletes each from Great Britain, Russia, Bahrain and the United States, and one Italian.

The reigning world champion Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya and the two Ethiopians Meseret Defar, Olympic champion in 2004 , and Tirunesh Dibaba, Olympic champion in 2008, were particularly favored .

The pace in the final was rather dragged out over the first three thousand meters. Only after about 3200 meters did Dibaba force it, so that the field spread apart. With eight hundred meters to go, the runners from Ethiopia and Kenya were among themselves. Dibaba maintained her lead until the last lap, but on the home straight she was intercepted by Defar and Cheruiyot. Defar won by almost half a second over Cheruiyot. Dibaba came in third in front of the Kenyan Sally Kipyego. The third Ethiopian, Gelete Burka, was fifth, the third Kenyan, Viola Kibiwot, sixth. The best non-African in seventh place was British Joanne Pavey.

With her victory, the third Ethiopian success in a row, Meseret Defar became the most successful athlete in this discipline in Olympic history. In addition to her gold medals in 2004 and 2012, she won a bronze medal in 2008. Vivian Cheruiyot won her second medal in London after bronze over 10,000 meters with silver .

For the third-placed Tirunesh Dibaba this was also the second medal at these games after gold in the 10,000-meter run with bronze.

Split times
Intermediate mark	Meanwhile	Leading	1000 m time
1000 m	3: 07.58 min	Joanne Pavey with the closed field	3: 07.58 min
2000 m	6: 17.35 min	Elena Romagnolo with the closed field	3: 09.47 min
3000 m	9: 27.75 min	Joanne Pavey with the closed field	3: 10.40 min
4000 m	12: 24.81 min	Tirunesh Dibaba with a top group of 10	2: 57.41 min
5000 m	15:04:25 min	Meseret Defar	2: 39.44 min

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
0 1	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia Ethiopia	15: 04.25
0 2	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya Kenya	15: 04.73
0 3	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia Ethiopia	15: 05.15
0 4th	Sally Kipyego	Kenya Kenya	15: 05.79
0 5	Wear burqa	Ethiopia Ethiopia	15: 10.66
0 6th	Viola Kibiwot	Kenya Kenya	15: 11.59
0 7th	Joanne Pavey	United Kingdom Great Britain	15: 12.72
0 8th	Julia Bleasdale	United Kingdom Great Britain	15: 14.55
0 9	Olga Golovkina	Russia Russia	15: 17.88
10	Shitaye Eshete	Bahrain Bahrain	15: 19.13
11	Molly Huddle	United States United States	15: 20.29
12	Tejitu Daba	Bahrain Bahrain	15: 21.34
13	Jelena Nagowizina	Russia Russia	15: 21.38
14th	Julie Culley	United States United States	15: 28.22
15th	Elena Romagnolo	Italy Italy	15: 35.69