Home > Rio 2016

Men’s 5,000m heats add to the drama in Rio as another fall nearly brings Mo Farah down

The drama continues to unfold on the track at the Rio Olympic Games. In the men's 5,000m heats today, another fall happened which almost resulted in Mo Farah going down.

Hassan Mead falls badly in the men's 5000m heat in Rio. Photo: USATF
Hassan Mead falls badly in the men’s 5000m heat in Rio. Photo: USATF

It’s been a dramatic Olympic Games on the track. Between Shaunae Miller’s dive across the 400m finish line and yesterday’s nasty fall by and subsequent show of tremendous sportsmanship by American Abbey D’agonstino and New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin, the tumbles of the Olympic Games have caught the attention of the world. The first heat of the men’s 5,000m qualifying races today was no different.


The first heat this morning saw another fall. With just 200m to go, American runner Hassan Mead got tangled up and went down, nearly taking Mo Farah with him to end the pre-race favourite’s chances at taking the gold. Farah stumbled but righted himself before hitting the track, and Mead was able to make a recovery to finish strong, though he did not get himself into one of the top five spots to automatically qualify. Farah also took a fall in the 10,000m but came back to win it.


Farah finished third in his heat. He’s through to the next round. First was Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet finishing in 13:24.65. Albert Kibichii came in after him. Canadian Luc Bruchet also ran in that first heat finishing in 19th in 14:02.02. One other surprise of that first heat was that Kenyan runner Caleb Ndiku, who was thought to have a good chance ending up on the podium, but did not qualify for the final.

The Canadian to watch in the second heat was Mo Ahmed. The second heat was much faster than the first and the tension between athletes was clear with the shoving that was going on between them as they tried to clear space to move up. South African Elroy Gelant led in a fast pace for much of the race. Phillip Kipyego (Uganda) gave him competition, as did Kenya’s Isiah Koech. The lead pack was densely packed with many having a fair crack at taking the lead. Ahmed was looking competitive heading into the final two laps, the pace was fast enough that it was looking like the next five fastest times would all go through which is exactly what happened.

While Ahmed didn’t come in the automatic top five, he came sixth in 12:57.82 and will be happy to move on to the finals. Surprisingly, no Kenyan athletes will be running in the 5,000m finals.

The start list for the finals is below:

ORDER / LANE BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY SB 2016 PB
1 2395 Dejen GEBREMESKEL ETHETH 12:59.89 12:46.81
2 3057 Paul Kipkemoi CHELIMO USAUSA 13:19.54 13:19.54
3 2896 Elroy GELANT RSARSA 13:04.88 13:04.88
4 2188 Mohammed AHMED CANCAN 13:01.74 13:01.74
5 2452 Mohamed FARAH GBRGBR 12:59.29 12:53.11
6 3085 Bernard LAGAT USAUSA 13:14.96 12:53.60
7 2343 Abrar OSMAN ERIERI 13:04.12 13:04.12
8 2825 David TORRENCE PERPER 13:19.42 13:16.53
9 2162 Birhanu BALEW BRNBRN 13:14.14 13:14.14
10 2393 Muktar EDRIS ETHETH 12:59.43 12:54.83
11 2444 Andrew BUTCHART GBRGBR 13:13.30 13:13.30
12 2175 Albert Kibichii ROP BRNBRN 13:04.87 12:51.96
13 3015 Joshua Kiprui CHEPTEGEI UGAUGA 13:00.60 13:00.60
14 2048 Brett ROBINSON AUSAUS 13:19.29 13:18.96
15 2396 Hagos GEBRHIWET ETHETH 13:00.20 12:47.53

 

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

The best trainers in Canada under $150

We curated the best performance trainers under $150 to meet your 2024 running goals, while staying on budget