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The stage is set for the women’s 5,000m final but unfortunately with no Canadians

Two Canadians, Andrea Seccafien and Jessica O'Connell, ran in the 5,000m qualifying heats but did not advance to the final

August 10, 2017
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All the pre-race favourites are through but sadly the women’s 5,000m final will not include any Canadians as both entrants–Jessica O’Connell and Andrea Seccafien–failed to advance.

RELATED: Two Canadians, Justyn Knight and Mo Ahmed, through to the men’s 5,000m final

The women’s 5,000m qualifying round involved two heats where the top 5 finishers from each heat plus the next 5 fastest time qualifiers advance to the final.

In heat one, Hellen Obiri of Kenya was first to cross the line in a time of 14:56.70. She finished ahead of two Ethiopians, Ayana and Teferi, Dutch runner Krumins and American Rowbury who all auto-qualified for finishing top five.

Heat two provided some interesting tactics with American Molly Huddle choosing to lead each of the first four kilometres–at times by a large margin–only to be caught and passed by a half-dozen competitors in the last 200m. Fortunately for Huddle her time was fast enough to advance to the final.

The heat was ultimately won by Ethiopian Gidey (15:59.34) ahead of Dutch runner Hassan, American Houlihan, British athlete McColgan and Kenyan Kipkemboi who all went through automatically.

Aside from Huddle, Norweigian runner Grovdal, Bahrainian Gezahegne, Kenyan Kiprotich and Brit Laura Muir also went through with fast times. The final is set for Saturday at 3:20 p.m. EST.

Toronto’s Seccafien was 13th in heat one in 15:19.39 while O’Connell of Calgary finished 12th in her heat in a time of 15:23.16. Neither time nor place was enough to get them through to the finals.

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