2015 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 5000 metres

Women's 5000 metres at the 2015 World Championships
Winner Almaz Ayana
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	27 August (heats) 30 August (final)
Competitors	26 from 14 nations
Winning time	14:26.83
Medalists
Almaz Ayana    Ethiopia   Senbere Teferi    Ethiopia   Genzebe Dibaba    Ethiopia
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The women's 5000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 27 and 30 August. ^{[1] [2]} The reigning champion from 2013 Meseret Defar was absent from the competition, having not yet returned from a career break to start a family. ^{[3] [4]}

The winning margin was 17.24 seconds. As of 2024, this is the only time this race has been won by more than six seconds at these championships.

Summary

From the gun in the final, the two Japanese runner Misaki Onishi then Ayuko Suzuki took the pace out at a serious level, the women running the same pace as the pedestrian men's race through the first 2,000. After her 1500 metres win and world record, all eyes were clearly on Genzebe Dibaba. On the first lap Dibaba went to the back of the pack. After a lap she decided to move in behind the Japanese runners. Instantly she was marked by world leader Almaz Ayana. Three laps into the race, it was a string of African runners behind the Japanese, with a gap back to all the other non-Africans. From the pace of just under 74 seconds a lap, Ayana then upped the pace, followed immediately by Dibaba and the Kenyan team running as a group led by returning silver medalist Mercy Cherono. Laps started getting quicker, 68, 67, the field stringing out 65, 64 first only Dibaba was able to follow Ayana, then she was broken, Ayana out into an insurmountable lead with three laps to go and still accelerating. More than a hundred metres behind, Senbere Teferi was battling the last of the Kenyans, Viola Kibiwot for the bronze medal position. Ayana slowed a little over the last two laps, the pace falling back to 67 seconds but the damage was done and the race was decided. Ayana pushed home in 14:26.83 to break Genzebe's sister Tirunesh Dibaba's Championship Record. Well behind, Genzebe was content to just finish the race in silver medal position, but the battle for bronze was accelerating. Onto the home stretch, Teferi put her best move on Kibiwot and was sprinting home, but in the process she passed the slowing Dibaba. Dibaba finally noticed Teferi passing and turned into sprinting making for a close finish but Teferi had the edge and took the silver medal.

It was a sweep for Ethiopia but not from a tactical situation like many Kenyan team members try to run. These were three rivals who in the process of beating each other, beat the rest of the world. Behind them, the straightaway was empty, it took 15 more seconds for the next Kenyan runner to arrive.

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows: ^[5]

World record	Tirunesh Dibaba  (ETH)	14:11.15	Oslo, Norway	6 June 2008
Championship record	Tirunesh Dibaba  (ETH)	14:38.59	Helsinki, Finland	13 August 2005
World leading	Almaz Ayana  (ETH)	14:14.32	Shanghai, China	17 May 2015
African record	Tirunesh Dibaba  (ETH)	14:11.15	Oslo, Norway	6 June 2008
Asian record	Bo Jiang  (CHN)	14:28.09	Shanghai, China	23 October 1997
NACAC record	Molly Huddle  (USA)	14:42.64	Fontvieille, Monaco	18 July 2014
South American record	Simone da Silva  (BRA)	15:18.85	São Paulo, Brazil	20 May 2011
European record	Liliya Shobukhova  (RUS)	14:23.75	Kazan, Russia	19 July 2008
Oceanian record	Kim Smith  (NZL)	14:45.93	Rome, Italy	11 July 2008
The following records were established during the competition:
Championship record	Almaz Ayana  (ETH)	14:26.83	Beijing, China	30 August 2015

Qualification standards

Entry standards [6]
15:20.00

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
27 August 2015	09:40	Heats
30 August 2015	19:15	Final

All times are local times (UTC+8)

Results

Heats

Qualification: First 5 in each heat (Q) and the next 5 fastest (q) advanced to the final. ^[7]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Almaz Ayana	Ethiopia  (ETH)	15:09.40	Q
2	2	Senbere Teferi	Ethiopia  (ETH)	15:14.57	Q
3	2	Viola Kibiwot	Kenya  (KEN)	15:15.27	Q
4	1	Genzebe Dibaba	Ethiopia  (ETH)	15:20.82	Q
5	1	Mercy Cherono	Kenya  (KEN)	15:20.94	Q
5	1	Mimi Belete	Bahrain  (BHR)	15:20.94	Q
7	1	Irene Chepet Cheptai	Kenya  (KEN)	15:21.03	Q
8	1	Susan Kuijken	Netherlands  (NED)	15:25.67	Q
9	2	Janet Kisa	Kenya  (KEN)	15:26.49	Q
10	2	Eloise Wellings	Australia  (AUS)	15:26.67	Q, SB
11	2	Ayuko Suzuki	Japan  (JPN)	15:28.18	q
12	1	Misaki Onishi	Japan  (JPN)	15:33.84	q
13	1	Stephanie Twell	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	15:34.72	q
14	1	Nicole Tully	United States  (USA)	15:41.03	q
15	2	Jennifer Wenth	Austria  (AUT)	15:43.57	q
16	1	Madeline Heiner	Australia  (AUS)	15:47.97
17	1	Gulshat Fazlitdinova	Russia  (RUS)	15:48.44
18	2	Betlhem Desalegn	United Arab Emirates  (UAE)	15:48.52	DQ [8]
18	1	Nicole Sifuentes	Canada  (CAN)	15:50.99
19	2	Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal	Norway  (NOR)	16:02.20
20	2	Marielle Hall	United States  (USA)	16:06.60
21	2	Azusa Sumi	Japan  (JPN)	16:13.65
22	2	Abbey D'Agostino	United States  (USA)	16:16.47
23	1	Olivia Mugove Chitate	Zimbabwe  (ZIM)	16:34.70	PB
	2	Yelena Korobkina	Russia  (RUS)	DNF
	2	Maureen Koster	Netherlands  (NED)	DNF
	1	Nikki Hamblin	New Zealand  (NZL)	DNS

Final

The final was started at 19:15 ^[9]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Almaz Ayana	Ethiopia  (ETH)	14:26.83	CR
	Senbere Teferi	Ethiopia  (ETH)	14:44.07
	Genzebe Dibaba	Ethiopia  (ETH)	14:44.14
4	Viola Kibiwot	Kenya  (KEN)	14:46.16
5	Mercy Cherono	Kenya  (KEN)	15:01.36
6	Janet Kisa	Kenya  (KEN)	15:02.68	SB
7	Irene Chepet Cheptai	Kenya  (KEN)	15:03.41
8	Susan Kuijken	Netherlands  (NED)	15:08.00
9	Ayuko Suzuki	Japan  (JPN)	15:08.29	PB
10	Eloise Wellings	Australia  (AUS)	15:09.62	SB
11	Mimi Belete	Bahrain  (BHR)	15:17.01
12	Stephanie Twell	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	15:26.24
13	Nicole Tully	United States  (USA)	15:27.42
14	Misaki Onishi	Japan  (JPN)	15:29.63
15	Jennifer Wenth	Austria  (AUT)	15:35.46

References

1. "Beijing 2015: Timetable". Beijing 2015. 10 August 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
2. Start list
3. Eder, Larry (2014-03-06). Meseret Defar is pregnant, will miss 2014, back in 2015, by EME News Archived 10 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine . RunBlogRun. Retrieved on 2015-08-16.
4. "REPORT: WOMEN'S 5000M FINAL – IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, BEIJING 2015". iaaf.org. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
5. "Records & Lists – 5000 meters". IAAF . Retrieved 14 August 2015.
6. IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 – Standards (PDF), IAAF, 2014, retrieved 18 August 2015
7. Heats results
8. Doping
9. Final results