Exciting moments highlight women’s 5,000m heats including great sportsmanship
New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin and American Abbey D'Agostino showed great sportsmanship during the women's 5,000m heats at the Olympics on Tuesday.
The women’s 5,000m heats kicked off morning track action at the Olympics toda. There were two heats to determine which athletes would advance to the final.
There were 17 women racing in each of the heats with the first five in each heat making it to the next round along with the next five fastest times. Two Canadians were present in the race in Rio today: Jessica O’Connell and Andrea Seccafien– Canada’s national champion in the event.
O’Connell raced in the first heat but didn’t make it through to the final with her 13th place finish. She ran 15:51. The automatic qualifiers from that heat are below:
Qualifiers from round 1 of the women’s 5000m pic.twitter.com/FvDq25Q6G0
— CanadianRunning (@CanadianRunning) August 16, 2016
But the most notable athlete running today was Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana. Ayana is coming off setting a blazing fast new record in the 10,000m. That she set on Friday when she shattered the 10,000m controversial Chinese record running 29:17.46. After that, spectators were expecting her to do great things in the 5,000m — a distance which she specializes in.
One of the dramatic moments of the race came in the second heat when a big fall happened between New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin and American runner Abbey D’Agostino. The two went down quite hard and it was evident that D’Agostino was in quite a bit of pain and may not finish. In a moment of great sportsmanship, Hamblin actually stopped her race to hug and help out D’Agostino. Both athletes continued but it was obvious that the American was suffering from injury.
Both fell during the 5000m.
Both helped each other up.
Both finished.
Both true role models.#Athletics #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/5HpLH858AC— IAAF (@iaaforg) August 16, 2016
Video
ICYMI | Collision turns into moment of courage for Olympic runners @abbey_dags @NikkiHamblin https://t.co/EKK4aVigHB https://t.co/KsDfexw8J6
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 16, 2016
After both athletes got up and continued to run, they were lapped by Ayana who had taken a significant lead on the rest of the field. That wasn’t a surprise. Ayana glided into the finish making her 15:04.36 look easy. Next to her was Tefer Senbere and Vivian Cheruiyot for third.
The Americans filed a protest, which was successful, and now D’Agostino will be able to run in the finals.
BREAKING: @abbey_dags & #TeamUSA have successfully protested & she’s been advanced to the 5000m final. #Rio2016
— USATF (@usatf) August 16, 2016
Canada’s Seccafien ran a 15:30 but won’t be going through to next round. D’Agostino did finish the race but was taken off the track in a wheelchair.
Going into the 5,000m final, Ayana already has a gold and a world record form this Olympic Games. The question now is whether or not she’ll be able to do the same in the final. Likely, she’ll at least bring home a gold medal. The finals will be a much anticipated race after what she did on the opening day of track. Those are set to go ahead on Friday at 8:40 p.m.
| POS | BIB | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 954 | Hellen Onsando OBIRI |  KEN |
15:19.38 Q | |
| 2 | 1257 | Yasemin CAN |  TUR |
15:19.50 Q | |
| 3 | 945 | Mercy CHERONO | KEN |
15:19.56 Q | |
| 4 | 1348 | Shelby HOULIHAN |  USA |
15:19.76 Q | |
| 5 | 1036 | Susan KUIJKEN |  NED |
15:19.96 Q | SB |
| 6 | 325 | Madeline HEINER HILLS |  AUS |
15:21.33 | |
| 7 | 924 | Miyuki UEHARA |  JPN |
15:23.41 | SB |
| 8 | 653 | Ababel YESHANEH |  ETH |
15:24.38 | |
| 9 | 1269 | Juliet CHEKWEL |  UGA |
15:29.07 | |
| 10 | 729 | Laura WHITTLE |  GBR |
15:31.30 | |
| 11 | 374 | Louise CARTON |  BEL |
15:34.39 | |
| 12 | 1332 | Kim CONLEY | USA |
15:36.00 | |
| 13 | 488 | Jessica O’CONNELL |  CAN |
15:51.18 | |
| 14 | 1077 | Lucy OLIVER |  NZL |
15:53.77 | |
| 15 | 1189 | Sharon FIRISUA |  SOL |
18:01.62 | NR |
| 16 | 543 | Beatrice Kamuchanga ALICE |  COD |
19:29.47 | |
| 442 | Dalila ABDULKADIR |  BRN |
DNS |
HEAT 2 16 AUG 2016 09:55 PLEASE CLICK ON A ROW BELOW TO VIEW MORE INFORMATION
| POS | BIB | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 641 | Almaz AYANA | ETH |
15:04.35 Q | |
| 2 | 649 | Senbere TEFERI | ETH |
15:17.43 Q | |
| 3 | 946 | Vivian Jepkemoi CHERUIYOT | KEN |
15:17.74 Q | |
| 4 | 1068 | Karoline Bjerkeli GRØVDAL |  NOR |
15:17.83 Q | |
| 5 | 709 | Eilish MCCOLGAN | GBR |
15:18.20 Q | |
| 6 | 344 | Eloise WELLINGS | AUS |
15:19.02 | SB |
| 7 | 329 | Genevieve LACAZE | AUS |
15:20.45 | PB |
| 8 | 725 | Stephanie TWELL | GBR |
15:25.90 | |
| 9 | 918 | Misaki ONISHI | JPN |
15:29.17 | |
| 10 | 445 | Mimi BELETE | BRN |
15:29.72 | |
| 11 | 490 | Andrea SECCAFIEN | CAN |
15:30.32 | |
| 12 | 920 | Ayuko SUZUKI | JPN |
15:41.81 | |
| 13 | 1271 | Stella CHESANG | UGA |
15:49.80 | |
| 14 | 351 | Jennifer WENTH |  AUT |
16:07.02 | |
| 15 | 1075 | Nikki HAMBLIN | NZL |
16:43.61 | |
| 16 | 1335 | Abbey D’AGOSTINO | USA |
17:10.02 |
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