Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The Men's 5000 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event was held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 15–17.^[1]

Men's 5000 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Mohammed Gammoudi crossing the finish line
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 15–17, 1968
Competitors	39 from 25 nations
Winning time	14:05.0
Medalists
Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia Kipchoge Keino  Kenya Naftali Temu  Kenya
← 1964 1972 →

Competition format

The Men's 5000m competition consisted of three heats (Round 1) and a Final. The top five runners from each heat advanced to the final.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World record	Ron Clarke (AUS)	13:16.6	Stockholm, Sweden	July 5, 1966
Olympic record	Vladimir Kuts (URS)	13:39.6	Melbourne, Australia	November 26, 1956

Results

Round 1

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	14:28.4	Q
2	Mohammed Gammoudi	Tunisia	14:29.0	Q
3	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	14:29.8	Q
4	Bob Finlay	Canada	14:31.8	Q
5	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium	14:34.6	Q
6	Bernd Dießner	East Germany	14:41.0
7	Rashid Sharafetdinov	Soviet Union	14:44.0
8	Dick Taylor	Great Britain	14:46.6
9	Keisuke Sawaki	Japan	15:00.8
10	György Kiss	Hungary	15:13.0
11	Lou Scott	United States	15:13.6
12	Esau Adenji	Cameroon	15:46.2
13	Gabriel M'Boa	Central African Republic	17:33.0
14	Juan Valladares	Honduras	18:21.6
	Efraín Cordero	El Salvador	DNS
	Arne Risa	Norway	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Naftali Temu	Kenya	14:20.4	Q
2	Ron Clarke	Australia	14:20.8	Q
3	Wohib Masresha	Ethiopia	14:27.0	Q
4	Jack Bacheler	United States	14:31.0	Q
5	Nikolay Sviridov	Soviet Union	14:38.8	Q
6	Ahmed Zammel	Tunisia	14:54.0
7	Alan Blinston	Great Britain	15:06.2
8	Werner Schneiter	Switzerland	15:08.2
9	Mustafa Musa	Uganda	15:10.2
10	Edward Stawiarz	Poland	15:13.8
11	Werner Girke	West Germany	15:20.8
12	Rafael Pérez	Costa Rica	15:41.4
13	Benjamin Silva-Netto	Philippines	17:10.2
14	Clovis Morales	Honduras	18:40.2
	Álvaro Mejía	Colombia	DNS
	Manuel de Oliveira	Portugal	DNS

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jean Wadoux	France	14:19.8	Q
2	Juan Máximo Martínez	Mexico	14:20.0	Q
3	Harald Norpoth	West Germany	14:20.6	Q
4	Rex Maddaford	New Zealand	14:20.8	Q
5	Fikru Deguefu	Ethiopia	14:21.6	Q
6	Bob Day	United States	14:23.2
7	Leonid Mykytenko	Soviet Union	14:44.0
8	Allan Rushmer	Great Britain	15:05.2
9	Julio Quevedo	Guatemala	15:23.0
	Dave Ellis	Canada	DNF
	Roland Brehmer	Poland	DNF
	Larbi Oukada	Morocco	DNS
	Mikhail Zhelev	Bulgaria	DNS
	Robert Hackman	Ghana	DNS
	Lajos Mecser	Hungary	DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
	Mohammed Gammoudi	Tunisia	14:05.0
	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	14:05.2
	Naftali Temu	Kenya	14:06.4
4	Juan Máximo Martínez	Mexico	14:10.8
5	Ron Clarke	Australia	14:12.4
6	Wohib Masresha	Ethiopia	14:17.6
7	Nikolay Sviridov	Soviet Union	14:18.4
8	Fikru Deguefu	Ethiopia	14:19.0
9	Jean Wadoux	France	14:20.8
10	Rex Maddaford	New Zealand	14:39.8
11	Bob Finlay	Canada	14:45.0
12	Emiel Puttemans	Belgium	14:59.6
—	Harald Norpoth	West Germany	DNF

Notes: Q- Qualified by place
DNF - Did Not Finish