Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 5000 metres

The women's 5000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 20 and 23.<ref name="SR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The final started out slowly and dismally, as none of the entrants wanted to take the lead. With the tightly packed field passing through the 400 metres, many runners started to fall behind and could not handle the pace set by early leaders Sun Yingjie and Xing Huina. Approaching to the halfway mark of the race, Turkey's world-record holder Elvan Abeylegesse surpassed the Chinese duo to charge into the lead and the pace began to accelerate quickly. Ethiopia's Meseret Defar and Kenya's Isabella Ochichi came immediately to the front of the pack, keeping an eye on the leader. With only three laps to go, Abeylegesse struggled to maintain her pace until she finally faded on the backstretch, leaving Defar and Ochichi to exchange the leading duties throughout the race and battle out for the gold. Moments after the bell, Ochichi continued to lead from the rest of the field, but Defar patiently passed her with only 200 metres to go, and then stormed away to her first Olympic title, finishing at 14:45.65. Ochichi had nothing left to respond with, but came through behind her to get the silver, while Defar's teammate Tirunesh Dibaba overhauled the weary Abeylegesse to hold on for the bronze.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:TOC limit

Records

Template:As of, the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows.

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the women's 5000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 15:08.70 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 15:20.45 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 20 August 2004	23:20	Round 1
Monday, 23 August 2004	22:00	Final

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next five fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Tirunesh Dibaba	Template:FlagIOC	15:00.66	Q
2	Sentayehu Ejigu	Template:FlagIOC	15:01.31	Q
3	Yelena Zadorozhnaya	Template:FlagIOC	15:01.77	Q
4	Liliya Shobukhova	Template:FlagIOC	15:01.86	Q
5	Edith Masai	Template:FlagIOC	15:01.92	Q
6	Irina Mikitenko	Template:FlagIOC	15:02.16	q
7	Sun Yingjie	Template:FlagIOC	15:03.00	q, SB
8	Émilie Mondor	Template:FlagIOC	15:20.15
9	Marla Runyan	Template:FlagIOC	15:24.88
10	Tezeta Sürekli	Template:FlagIOC	15:26.64
11	Kim Smith	Template:FlagIOC	15:31.80
12	Dorcus Inzikuru	Template:FlagIOC	15:38.59
13	Shayne Culpepper	Template:FlagIOC	15:40.02
14	Ebru Kavaklıoğlu	Template:FlagIOC	15:52.39
15	Maria McCambridge	Template:FlagIOC	15:57.42
16	Souad Aït Salem	Template:FlagIOC	16:02.10
17	Dulce María Rodríguez	Template:FlagIOC	16:08.07
18	Zainab Bakkour	Template:FlagIOC	17:18.66
19	Francine Niyonizigiye	Template:FlagIOC	17:21.27
Template:Hs	Elizabeth Zaragoza	Template:FlagIOC	Template:Abbr

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Meseret Defar	Template:FlagIOC	14:52.39	Q
2	Elvan Abeylegesse	Template:FlagIOC	14:54.80	Q
3	Joanne Pavey	Template:FlagIOC	14:55.45	Q
4	Isabella Ochichi	Template:FlagIOC	14:55.69	Q
5	Xing Huina	Template:FlagIOC	14:56.01	Q, PB
6	Margaret Maury	Template:FlagIOC	14:56.79	q, PB
7	Sonia O'Sullivan	Template:FlagIOC	14:59.61	q
8	Gulnara Samitova	Template:FlagIOC	15:05.78	q
9	Jane Wanjiku	Template:FlagIOC	15:14.57
10	Kirsi Valasti	Template:FlagIOC	15:33.78
11	Shalane Flanagan	Template:FlagIOC	15:34.63
12	Maria Protopappa	Template:FlagIOC	15:35.07
13	Volha Krautsova	Template:FlagIOC	15:44.01
14	Restituta Joseph	Template:FlagIOC	15:45.11
15	Catherine Chikwakwa	Template:FlagIOC	15:46.17
16	Courtney Babcock	Template:FlagIOC	15:47.35
17	Krisztina Papp	Template:FlagIOC	15:58.44
18	Inês Monteiro	Template:FlagIOC	16:03.75
19	Supriyati Sutono	Template:FlagIOC	16:34.14	SB
20	Nebiat Habtemariam	Template:FlagIOC	16:49.01
21	Inés Melchor	Template:FlagIOC	17:08.07

Final

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Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
Template:Gold01	Meseret Defar	Template:FlagIOC	14:45.65
Template:Silver02	Isabella Ochichi	Template:FlagIOC	14:48.19
Template:Bronze03	Tirunesh Dibaba	Template:FlagIOC	14:51.83
Template:Sort	Yelena Zadorozhnaya	Template:FlagIOC	14:55.52
Template:Sort	Joanne Pavey	Template:FlagIOC	14:57.87
Template:Sort	Gulnara Samitova	Template:FlagIOC	15:02.30
Template:Sort	Irina Mikitenko	Template:FlagIOC	15:03.36
Template:Sort	Sun Yingjie	Template:FlagIOC	15:07.23
Template:Sort	Xing Huina	Template:FlagIOC	15:07.41
10	Sentayehu Ejigu	Template:FlagIOC	15:09.55
11	Margaret Maury	Template:FlagIOC	15:09.77
12	Elvan Abeylegesse	Template:FlagIOC	15:12.64
13	Liliya Shobukhova	Template:FlagIOC	15:15.64
14	Sonia O'Sullivan	Template:FlagIOC	16:20.90
Template:Hs	Edith Masai	Template:FlagIOC	Template:Abbr

External links

• IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage

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