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Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 10,000 metres

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Men's 10,000 metres
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
VenueJapan National Stadium
Date30 July 2021 (final)
Competitors25 from 15 nations
Winning time27:43.22
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Selemon Barega  Ethiopia
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Joshua Cheptegei  Uganda
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Jacob Kiplimo  Uganda
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2024 →
Official Video Highlights

The men's 10,000 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 30 July 2021 at the Japan National Stadium.[1] 25 athletes competed.[2] None of the 2016 medalists took part in the competition. Selemon Barega from Ethiopia won the event by 0.41 seconds, with Ugandans Joshua Cheptegei, the world record holder, and Jacob Kiplimo coming second and third, respectively. All of them won their first Olympic medal.

The medals for the competition were presented by Paul Tergat, Kenya; IOC Member, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Lord Sebastian Coe, United Kingdom; World Athletics President.

Summary

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25 athletes started and right from the gun, Ugandan Stephen Kissa went for the lead. No other athlete showed interest in the early breakaway, allowing Kissa to open up as much as a 70 metre gap on the field in the first mile. Employing team tactics similar to bicycle racing, the second Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo held the leading position on the pack while world record holder Joshua Cheptegei cruised along near the back of the pack. After 5 laps, Selemon Barega decided to pull in the breakaway, with Rhonex Kipruto tagging along for the chase. It took them three more laps to bridge the gap.

As they reached contact with Kissa, Kissa accelerated again, opening up a smaller gap. With the peloton following the bridging duo, Barega fell back to the pack with Kipruto continuing to try to chase down Kissa. For the next 7 laps, Kipruto, would pull closer only to have Kissa open up another gap. Finally with 9 laps to go, Kipruto was able to get ahead of Kissa and open a gap of his own over the peloton as a whole.[3] Once passed, Kissa fell back through the field and then walked off the track.[4] Kipruto's gap on the field didn't hold more than two laps, but they continued to indulge him the leading position, pacing the field toward the chess match of the final laps. With just over four laps to go, Cheptegei decided it was time to take the lead.

As they reached three laps, Rodgers Kwemoi challenged for the lead, with Mohammed Ahmed tucked behind the leaders, but still the pack had a dozen runners in contention with two laps to go. As a few fell off the back, Ahmed took the lead down the backstretch, but on the home stretch Barega came forward to lead at the bell. Barega opened up a small gap, chased by the more gangly sprinting of his Ethiopian teammate Berihu Aregawi, indoor mile world record holder Yomif Kejelcha, Kiplimo and Cheptegei. Kejelcha couldn't handle the speed, Ahmed fell back, leaving only the two Ugandans to chase the two Ethiopians. Through the final turn, Kiplimo worked his way past Aregawi. Coming off the turn, Cheptegei also got past and the chase was on down the home stretch. Cheptegei passed Kiplimo but Barega's five metre lead was too much to make up. Barega crossed the finish line with arms outstretched taking gold over the world record holder, his final lap 53.94.[5][6][7]

Background

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This was the 25th time the event is held, having appeared at every Olympics since 1912.

Qualification

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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 10,000 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 27:28.00. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 27 is reached.[2][8] Because more than 27 athletes (after applying the 3-per-NOC limit) have met the qualifying standard, the world rankings are not used.

The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets were eligible for qualifying. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.[2][9]

NOCs cannot use their universality place in the 10,000 metres.[2]

Men's 10,000 m

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Entry number: initial target of 27. 30 runners qualified by Entry standard. 5 runners withdrew before the race.

Qualification standard No. of athletes NOC Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 27:28.00 3  Ethiopia Berihu Aregawi
Selemon Barega
Yomif Kejelcha
3  Kenya Rhonex Kipruto
Rodgers Kwemoi
Weldon Langat
3  Uganda Joshua Cheptegei
Jacob Kiplimo
Stephen Kissa
3  United States Grant Fisher
Woody Kincaid
Joe Klecker
1  Australia Stewart McSweyn
Patrick Tiernan
1  Belgium Bashir Abdi
Isaac Kimeli
2  Great Britain Sam Atkin
Marc Scott
2  Japan Akira Aizawa
Tatsuhiko Ito
0  Bahrain Birhanu Balew
1  Canada Mohammed Ahmed
1  Eritrea Aron Kifle
1  France Morhad Amdouni
1  Italy Yemaneberhan Crippa
0  Morocco Zouhair Talbi
0  Norway Sondre Nordstad Moen
1  Spain Carlos Mayo
1  Switzerland Julien Wanders
1  Thailand Kieran Tuntivate
World ranking 0
Total 25

Competition format

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The event consists of a single race.[10]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows:

World record  Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) 26:11.00 Valencia, Spain 7 October 2020
Olympic record  Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) 27:01.17 Beijing, China 17 August 2008
World Leading  Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) 26:33.93 Ostrava, Czechia 19 May 2021
Area
Time (s) Athlete Nation
Africa (records) 26:11.00 WR Joshua Cheptegei  Uganda
Asia (records) 26:38.76 Abdullah Ahmad Hassan  Qatar
North, Central America
and Caribbean
(records)
26:44.36 Galen Rupp  United States
Europe (records) 26:46.57 Mo Farah  Great Britain
Oceania (records) 27:22.55 Patrick Tiernan  Australia
South America (records) 27:28.12 Marilson dos Santos  Brazil

Schedule

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's 10,000 metres took place on a single day.[1]

Date Time Round
Friday, 30 July 2021 19:00 Final

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Selemon Barega  Ethiopia 27:43.22
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Joshua Cheptegei  Uganda 27:43.63 SB
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Jacob Kiplimo  Uganda 27:43.88
4 Berihu Aregawi  Ethiopia 27:46.16
5 Grant Fisher  United States 27:46.39
6 Mohammed Ahmed  Canada 27:47.76 SB
7 Yomif Kejelcha  Ethiopia 27:52.03
8 Rhonex Kipruto  Kenya 27:52.78
9 Morhad Amdouni  France 27:53.58
10 Yemaneberhan Crippa  Italy 27:54.05 SB
11 Aron Kifle  Eritrea 28:04.06
12 Carlos Mayo  Spain 28:04.71
13 Marc Scott  Great Britain 28:09.23
14 Woody Kincaid  United States 28:11.01
15 Joe Klecker  United States 28:14.18
16 Akira Aizawa  Japan 28:18.37 SB
17 Isaac Kimeli  Belgium 28:31.91
18 Patrick Tiernan  Australia 28:35.06 SB
19 Weldon Langat  Kenya 28:41.42
20 Julien Wanders  Switzerland 28:55.29 SB
21 Tatsuhiko Ito  Japan 29:01.31
22 Kieran Tuntivate  Thailand 29:01.92
Sam Atkin  Great Britain DNF
Stephen Kissa  Uganda DNF
Rodgers Kwemoi  Kenya DQ

References

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  1. ^ a b "Athletics Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Athletics" (PDF). IAAF. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Stephen Kissa: Step-up Uganda's kingmaker".
  4. ^ "Olympics: Preview, TV, Time as Cheptegei and Kiplimo target 5000m Success | the SportsNation". 5 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Selemon Barega wins 10,000m gold at the Tokyo Olympics despite Uganda's tactical approach".
  6. ^ "Ethiopian Barega Upsets Uganda's Cheptegei to Win Shock 10,000-Meter Gold | Voice of America - English".
  7. ^ "Barega upsets Cheptegei for 10K gold, 1st Tokyo track medal | NBC Olympics".
  8. ^ "IAAF to follow other sports with world ranking system for athletes". BBC Sport. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  9. ^ "Olympic qualification period suspended until 1 December 2020". World Athletics. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  10. ^ "Athletics Explanatory Guide" (PDF). Tokyo 2020. August 2019.