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1976 Olympic Games Montreal - Men's 5000 m

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Details: Parent Category: Olympic Games (Athletics); Category: 1976 Olympic Games Montreal - (Athletics); Last Updated: 30 July 2016; Hits: 1785

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Host City: Montréal, Canada

Format: Top four in each heat and next two fastest advanced to the final.

Date Started: July 28, 1976

Date Finished: July 30, 1976

(Competitors: 36; Countries: 23; Finalists: 14)

Venue(s): Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, Montréal, Québec

Overview by IAAF

Foster set an Olympic record of 13:20.34 in the final heat, where Lasse Orimus (FIN) ran a fine 13:23.43 in seventh place – seven seconds faster than the winner of the next fastest heat – but didn’t make the final. Foster ran 2:41.5 and 5:26.5 for the first two kilometres in the final, and Viren then moved to the front and slowed up the pace. Quax led at 3000m (8:15.5). After a further 800m, Viren took over with laps of 62.9 and 63.0 with a pack of seven following him through the bell. With much faster finishers like Quax and Dixon trailing the Finn, it seemed incomprehensible that Viren could hold off the field, but he did, with a last lap of 55.4. Viren became the only man ever to win a double-double, the 5000m & m golds in successive Olympics. The New Zealanders both made statements afterwards to the effect that Viren had won because of “blood doping”, Viren’s enigmatic response to such statements was “how can you confirm that?”

Summary by Sports-reference.com

The defending champion was Lasse Virén but he had not done much since München, other than breaking the world record the week after the 1972 Olympics at an International in Helsinki. He placed third at the 1974 Europeans, behind Britain’s Brendan Foster. Virén was known, however, as a master at peaking. Some thought he was too much of a master at that, and rumors abounded that he one of the first to use blood doping to increase his endurance for the Olympics. This was never proven. In Montréal he had already defended his 10K gold medal. In the 5K final, Foster led for the first 2,000 metres when Virén went to the front. A pack of seven runners was together at the bell, with New Zealanders Rod Dixon and Dick Quax known for their finishing speed. But Virén held them off, winning the gold over Quax in second. Virén became the only man to win the 5K/10K double twice at the Olympics.

Both bronze medal winner Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand and 6th place finisher Willy Polleunis had difficult passages to the final. Both men were initially disqualified for impeding home favourite Grant McLaren in their heat but were reinstated after appeal.

*5000 m*	Men	Final	30 July

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	13.24.76	Lasse Virén	Finland	FIN	22 Jul 49
2	13.25.16	Dick Quax	New Zealand	NZL	1 Jan 48
3	13.25.38	Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand	West Germany	FRG	11 Sep 52
4	13.25.50	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	NZL	13 Jul 50
5	13.26.19	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	GBR	12 Jan 48
6	13.26.99	Willy Polleunis	Belgium	BEL	27 Dec 47
7	13.27.65	Ian Stewart	Great Britain	GBR	15 Jan 49
8	13.29.38	Aniceto Simoes	Portugal	POR	8 Sep 45
9	13.30.33	Knut Kvalheim	Norway	NOR	14 Jun 50
10	13.31.07	Detlef Uhlemann	West Germany	FRG	24 Sep 49
11	13.36.72	Enn Sellik	Soviet Union	URS	10 Dec 54
12	13.42.51	Paul Geis	United States	USA	23 Feb 53
13	13.46.61	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	FIN	4 May 49
	DNF	Boris Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	URS	11 Apr 47
*5000 m*	Men	Heat 1	28 July

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	13.30.85	Dick Quax	New Zealand	NZL	1 Jan 48
2	13.32.36	Paul Geis	United States	USA	23 Feb 53
3	13.32.78	Boris Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	URS	11 Apr 47
4	13.33.39	Lasse Virén	Finland	FIN	22 Jul 49
5	13.34.39	Jean-Marie Conrath	France	FRA	11 Apr 52
6	13.36.42	Luis Hernández	Mexico	MEX	13 Feb 55
7	13.37.09	Ilie Floroiu	Romania	ROU	29 Nov 52
8	13.38.22	Toshiaki Kamata	Japan	JPN	3 Nov 51
9	13.39.37	David Black	Great Britain	GBR	2 Oct 52
10	13.39.69	Edmundo Warnke	Chile	CHI	3 Jul 51
11	13.40.54	Eddie Leddy	Ireland	IRL	6 Sep 51
12	13.43.89	Fernando Cerrada	Spain	ESP	21 Aug 54
13	18.50.07	Dieudonne Lamothé	Haiti	HAI	29 Jul 54
	DNF	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium	BEL	8 Oct 47
*5000 m*	Men	Heat 2	28 July

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	13.45.24	Willy Polleunis	Belgium	BEL	27 Dec 47
2	13.45.77	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	FIN	4 May 49
3	13.45.85	Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand	West Germany	FRG	11 Sep 52
4	13.45.94	Ian Stewart	Great Britain	GBR	15 Jan 49
5	13.46.23	Rodolfo Gómez	Mexico	MEX	30 Oct 50
6	13.46.40	Grant McLaren	Canada	CAN	19 Aug 48
7	13.47.14	Duncan Macdonald	United States	USA	15 Jan 49
8	13.49.49	Domingo Tibaduiza	Colombia	COL	22 Nov 49
9	13.52.40	Venanzio Ortis	Italy	ITA	29 Jan 55
10	14.47.12	Hossein Rabbi	Iran	IRI	21 Mar 47
11	14.58.33	John Kokinai	Papua New Guinea	PNG	17 May 51
*5000 m*	Men	Heat 3	28 July

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	13.20.34	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	GBR	12 Jan 48
2	13.20.48	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	NZL	13 Jul 50
3	13.20.60	Knut Kvalheim	Norway	NOR	14 Jun 50
4	13.20.81	Enn Sellik	Soviet Union	URS	10 Dec 54
5	13.21.08	Detlef Uhlemann	West Germany	FRG	24 Sep 49
6	13.21.93	Aniceto Simoes	Portugal	POR	8 Sep 45
7	13.23.43	Lasse Orimus	Finland	FIN	2 Jan 50
8	13.23.76	Marc Smet	Belgium	BEL	5 Feb 51
9	13.29.01	Dick Buerkle	United States	USA	3 Sep 47
10	13.36.94	Jacques Boxberger	France	FRA	16 Apr 49
11	13.46.07	Markus Ryffel	Switzerland	SUI	5 Feb 55