Athletics at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The men's 5000 metres event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Monday, August 16, 1920, and on Tuesday, August 17, 1920. Thirty-eight runners from 16 nations competed.^[1]

Men's 5000 metres at the Games of the VII Olympiad
Venue	Olympisch Stadion
Dates	August 16–17, 1920
Competitors	38 from 16 nations
Medalists
Joseph Guillemot  France Paavo Nurmi  Finland Eric Backman  Sweden
← 1912 1924 →

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds. First four semifinals were held of 9 to 10 runners with the top four in each heat advancing. The final race was then held the next day with 16 competitors.^[2]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.^[3]

World Record	14:36.6	Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN)	Stockholm (SWE)	July 10, 1912
Olympic Record	14:36.6	Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN)	Stockholm (SWE)	July 10, 1912

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Monday, 16 August 1920	10:00	Round 1
Tuesday, 17 August 1920	15:15	Final

Results

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Rudolf Falk (SWE)	15:17.8	Q
2	Herbert Irwin (GBR)	15:17.8	Q
3	Teodor Koskenniemi (FIN)	15:22.0	Q
4	Clifford Furnas (USA)	15:23.0	Q
5	Augusto Maccario (ITA)	15:23.2
6	Alfred Gaschen (SUI)	15:38.0
7	Jean-Baptiste Manhès (FRA)	16:17.8
—	Pierre Trullemans (BEL)	DNF
	Panagiotis Retelas (GRE)	DNF
	Tommy Town (CAN)	DNF

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Joe Blewitt (GBR)	15:19.8	Q
2	Julien Van Campenhout (BEL)	15:22.6	Q
3	Hal Brown (USA)	15:31.8	Q
4	Nils Bergström (SWE)	15:39.2	Q
5	Lucien Duquesne (FRA)	16:08.2
6	Juan Muguerza (ESP)
7	Konosuke Sano (JPN)
—	Artur Nielsen (DEN)	DNF
	Teodoro Pons (ESP)	DNF
	Carlo Martinenghi (ITA)	DNF

Semifinal 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Carlo Speroni (ITA)	15:27.6	Q
2	Paavo Nurmi (FIN)	15:33.0	Q
3	William Seagrove (GBR)	15:53.6	Q
4	Emanuel Lundström (SWE)	16:04.2	Q
5	Charles Hunter (USA)
6	Alexandros Kranis (GRE)
7	François Vyncke (BEL)
8	Karel Pacák (TCH)
9	Abdul Ali Maghoub (EGY)

Semifinal 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Joseph Guillemot (FRA)	15:33.0	Q
2	Eric Backman (SWE)	15:34.0	Q
3	Ivan Dresser (USA)	15:41.6	Q
4	Alfred Nichols (GBR)	15:54.0	Q
5	Ilmari Vesamaa (FIN)	15:54.4
6	Tomeichi Ohura (JPN)
7	Jón Jónsen (DEN)
8	Henri Smets (BEL)
9	Gerardus van der Wel (NED)

Final

Place	Athlete	Time
	Joseph Guillemot (FRA)	14:55.6
	Paavo Nurmi (FIN)	15:00.0
	Eric Backman (SWE)	15:13.0
4	Teodor Koskenniemi (FIN)	15:17.0
5	Joe Blewitt (GBR)	15:19.0
6	William Seagrove (GBR)	15:21.0
7	Carlo Speroni (ITA)	15:21.2
8	Alfred Nichols (GBR)	15:24.0
9	Julien Van Campenhout (BEL)	15:25.0
10	Nils Bergström (SWE)	15:29.5
11	Rudolf Falk (SWE)
12	Herbert Carmichael Irwin (GBR)
13	Emanuel Lundström (SWE)
—	Clifford Furnas (USA)	DNF
	Hal Brown (USA)	DNF
	Ivan Dresser (USA)	DNF