Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 5000 metres


The women's 5000 metres at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 19–22 August at the Beijing National Stadium.
The qualifying standards were 15:09.00 and 15:24.00.
While strategically this was different, the results were much the same as the 10000 final a week earlier. Elvan Abeylegesse kept took the lead earlier but field did not dissipate behind her, instead Ethiopians, Kenyans and newly crowned steeplechase world record holder Gulnara Samitova-Galkina engulfing each attempt to pull away. Going into the last lap, it was the three Ethiopians and former Ethiopian Abeylegesse at the front, with the Kenyan team and Russian Liliya Shobukhova already trying to catch back up. Tirunesh Dibaba jumped into the lead with the expected chase coming from Meseret Defar, in one of the few head to head battles between these two stars. But Abeylegesse hadn't read the script and refused to get out of the picture. Through the [|final] turn she caught Defar and swung wide into lane 2 as if to speed past Dibaba. She was able to match Dibaba's speed down the final straight but couldn't make up the ground she had lost, Dibaba taking her second gold, Defar holding off the rest of the field to take bronze.
On 29 March 2017, IAAF confirmed that Abeylegesse had tested positive for a banned substance at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, and that her results from 2007 to 2009, including her Olympic silvers, had been expunged.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Round 1

Qualification: First 6 in each heat and the next 3 fastest advance to the final.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
12Meseret Defar14:56.32[|Q]
22Vivian Cheruiyot14:57.27Q, SB
32Liliya Shobukhova14:57.77Q
42Priscah Jepleting Cherono14:58.07Q
52Elvan Abeylegesse14:58.79Q, SB
62Shalane Flanagan14:59.69Q, SB
72Kara Goucher15:00.98[|q], SB
81Tirunesh Dibaba15:09.89Q
91Sylvia Kibet15:10.37Q
101Alemitu Bekele15:10.92Q
111Meselech Melkamu15:11.21Q
122Megan Metcalfe15:11.23q, PB
131Gulnara Samitova-Galkina15:11.46Q
142Xue Fei15:13.25q, SB
151Jennifer Rhines15:15.12Q
161Yuriko Kobayashi15:15.87
171Simret Sultan15:16.25NR
182Kayoko Fukushi15:20.46
192Mariem Alaoui Selsouli15:21.47
201Volha Krautsova15:21.85SB
211Silvia Weissteiner15:23.45
221Zhang Yingying15:23.81SB
231Zakia Mrisho Mohamed15:24.28
241Dolores Checa15:31.22
252Yukiko Akaba15:38.30
261Jessica Augusto16:05.71
272Krisztina Papp16:08.86
281Lucia Chandamale16:44.09
292Francine Niyonizigiye17:08.44
301Celma Bonfim da Graça17:25.99NR
2Yelena ZadorozhnayaDNF
2Joanne PaveyDNS

Final

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Tirunesh Dibaba15:41.40
Meseret Defar15:44.12
Sylvia Kibet15:44.96
4Vivian Cheruiyot15:46.32
5Liliya Shobukhova15:46.62
6Alemitu Bekele15:48.48
7Meselech Melkamu15:49.03
8Kara Goucher15:49.39
9Shalane Flanagan15:50.80
10Priscah Jepleting Cherono15:51.78
11Gulnara Samitova-Galkina15:56.97
12Xue Fei16:09.84
13Jennifer Rhines16:34.63
14Megan Metcalfe17:06.82
DSQElvan Abeylegesse15:42.74

Splits