Men's 5000 Metres
How it works
Runners compete over twelve-and-a-half laps of a four hundred metre track. They make bunched standing starts and can break immediately for the inside.
History
A number of events were organized by the Ancient Greeks akin to today’s long-distance races. During the mid nineteenth century, match races for betting purposes became very popular in the USA and Great Britain.
Since 1912, every Olympic Games has included a men’s 5000m.
Did you know?
It wasn’t until 1996 that a women’s version of the 5000m featured at the Olympic Games, replacing the 3000m.
Gold standard
Unquestionably this is the realm of the East Africans, with Kenya and Ethiopia dominating; Tanzania and Uganda are strong, too. Athletes from Algeria and Morocco have also enjoyed success.
Icons
Said Aouita
He dominated throughout the mid-to-late 1980s. In 1984, the versatile Moroccan won Olympic gold and took the world title three years later. He was also the first man to cover the distance within thirteen minutes.
Gabriela Szabo
The fast-finishing Romanian landed back-to-back world titles in 1997 and 1999 before enjoying Olympic glory in Sydney in 2000.
Reigning champion
In 2011, Muktar made his first international appearances, taking 7th place in the junior race at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships sharing the team silver medal and finishing 4th in the 10,000 metres at that years African Junior Athletics Championships.
In 2012, he began to raise his profile with two prominent wins on the junior stage. First he won at the African Cross Country Championships, and then he went on to take the 5000 metres gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Athletics. That year he performed well in the 5000 m, taking the Ethiopian national title. He won over the distance at the Meeting Lille Métropole and competed on the Diamond League for the first time, setting a best of 13:04.34 minutes at the Meeting Areva in Paris. Towards the end of the year he had podium finishes on the Italian road circuit, coming third at the Giro di Castelbuono and close to victory at the BOClassic, where he recorded the same time as winner Imane Merga.
At the start of 2013, he performed well in cross country, winning the Cross della Vallagarina, Campaccio, and Cinque Mulini races. In 2013, he followed this up with a bronze in IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He won the Giro Media Blenio race in his first road outing of the year.
He won the 5000 metres on August 12, 2017 at the World Championships in Athletics 2017 London beating Mo Farah in his last track race at the world championships. The Gold medal was the second for Ethiopia in London 2017 enhancing its world ranking to number 4 on the day.
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