# 2017 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 5000 metres

The women's 5000 metres at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 10 and 13 August.

## Summary

In the first turn of the final, Kalkidan Gezahegne (BHR) started quickly to take a two-metre lead, covered quickly by 10,000 metre champ Almaz Ayana, revealing her intent to cover moves. Hellen Obiri (KEN) moved to Ayana's shoulder. Then Sifan Hassan ran around the crowd to take the lead. In control of the front, Hassan didn't speed up, she slowed the pace to a virtual walk. Everyone obliged until the last few metres when Ayana broke free off the front. They passed the first lap in 1:21.77. Ayana's second lap of 1:18.98 didn't improve the pace much, but it separated all three Ethiopians and all three Kenyans to the front. Gezahegne rushed forward to take another temporary lead before fading back through the pack for good. From there it was Ayana setting the pace, but a pack of others, led by Hellen Obiri (KEN) were determined not to let her get away. Ayana accelerated but Obiri stuck to her, creating a ten-second breakaway on the pack led by Hassan. With 300 metres to go, Obiri took off at a pace Ayana could not match, taking the pace from 68 second laps to the last 200 metres in under 30 seconds. Running even faster, Hasan separated from the pack and set off in chase of catching Ayana for silver but arriving two seconds too late.

## Records

Before the competition, the records were as follows:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date | Location |
| World | 14:11.15 | Tirunesh Dibaba | ETH | 6 Jun 2008 | Oslo, Norway |
| Championship | 14:38.59 | Tirunesh Dibaba | ETH | 13 Aug 2005 | Helsinki, Finland |
| World leading | 14:18.37 | Hellen Onsando Obiri | KEN | 8 Jun 2017 | Rome, Italy |
| African | 14:11.15 | Tirunesh Dibaba | ETH | 6 Jun 2008 | Oslo, Norway |
| Asian | 14:28.09 | Bo Jiang | CHN | 23 Oct 1997 | Shanghai, China |
| NACAC | 14:38.92 | Shannon Rowbury | USA | 9 Sep 2016 | Brussels, Belgium |
| South American | 15:18.85 | Simone da Silva | BRA | 20 May 2011 | São Paulo, Brazil |
| European | 14:22.34 | Sifan Hassan | NED | 13 Jul 2018 | Rabat, Marruecos |
| Oceanian | 14:45.93 | Kim Smith | NZL | 11 Jul 2008 | Rome, Italy |
The following records were set at the competition:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
| Colombian | 15:26.18 | Muriel Coneo | COL | 10 Aug 2017 |

## Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 15:22.00.

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+1), is as follows:
| Date | Time | Round |
| 10 August | 18:30 | Heats |
| 13 August | 19:35 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

The first round took place on 10 August in two heats as follows:
| Heat | 1 | 2 |
| Start time | 18:30 | 18:56 |
| Photo finish | link | link |
The first five in each heat ( Q ) and the next five fastest ( q ) qualified for the final. The overall results were as follows:
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Hellen Obiri | Kenya (KEN) | 14:56.70 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Almaz Ayana | Ethiopia (ETH) | 14:57.06 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 1 | Senbere Teferi | Ethiopia (ETH) | 14:57.23 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Susan Krumins | Netherlands (NED) | 14:57.33 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Shannon Rowbury | United States (USA) | 14:57.55 | Q, SB |
| 6 | 1 | Sheila Chepkirui | Kenya (KEN) | 14:57.58 | q, PB |
| 7 | 2 | Letesenbet Gidey | Ethiopia (ETH) | 14:59.34 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Laura Muir | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 14:59.34 | q |
| 9 | 2 | Sifan Hassan | Netherlands (NED) | 14:59.85 | Q |
| 10 | 2 | Shelby Houlihan | United States (USA) | 15:00.37 | Q, PB |
| 11 | 2 | Eilish McColgan | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 15:00.38 | Q, PB |
| 12 | 2 | Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi | Kenya (KEN) | 15:00.39 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal | Norway (NOR) | 15:00.44 | q, SB |
| 14 | 2 | Molly Huddle | United States (USA) | 15:03.60 | q |
| 15 | 2 | Kalkidan Gezahegne | Bahrain (BHR) | 15:07.19 | q, PB |
| 16 | 1 | Yasemin Can | Turkey (TUR) | 15:08.20 | |
| 17 | 1 | Alina Reh | Germany (GER) | 15:10.01 | PB |
| 18 | 2 | Rina Nabeshima | Japan (JPN) | 15:11.83 | PB |
| 19 | 2 | Madeline Hills | Australia (AUS) | 15:13.77 | |
| 20 | 1 | Ana Lozano | Spain (ESP) | 15:14.23 | PB |
| 21 | 1 | Bontu Rebitu | Bahrain (BHR) | 15:16.70 | PB |
| 22 | 1 | Mercyline Chelangat | Uganda (UGA) | 15:16.75 | |
| 23 | 1 | Andrea Seccafien | Canada (CAN) | 15:19.39 | |
| 24 | 2 | Stella Chesang | Uganda (UGA) | 15:23.02 | |
| 25 | 2 | Jessica O'Connell | Canada (CAN) | 15:23.16 | |
| 26 | 1 | Ayuko Suzuki | Japan (JPN) | 15:24.86 | |
| 27 | 1 | Eloise Wellings | Australia (AUS) | 15:25.92 | |
| 28 | 2 | Muriel Coneo | Colombia (COL) | 15:26.18 | NR |
| 29 | 2 | Heidi See | Australia (AUS) | 15:38.86 | |
| 30 | 1 | Camille Buscomb | New Zealand (NZL) | 15:40.41 | |
| 31 | 2 | Stephanie Twell | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 15:41.29 | |
| 32 | 2 | Yuliya Shmatenko | Ukraine (UKR) | 16:40.36 | |
| | 2 | Genzebe Dibaba | Ethiopia (ETH) | DNS | |
| | 1 | Sarah Lahti | Sweden (SWE) | DNS | |

### Final

The final took place on 13 August at 19:35. The results were as follows: (photo finish)
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Hellen Obiri | Kenya (KEN) | 14:34.86 | |
| | Almaz Ayana | Ethiopia (ETH) | 14:40.35 | SB |
| | Sifan Hassan | Netherlands (NED) | 14:42.73 | |
| 4 | Senbere Teferi | Ethiopia (ETH) | 14:47.45 | |
| 5 | Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi | Kenya (KEN) | 14:48.74 | |
| 6 | Laura Muir | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 14:52.07 | PB |
| 7 | Sheila Chepkirui | Kenya (KEN) | 14:54.05 | PB |
| 8 | Susan Krumins | Netherlands (NED) | 14:58.33 | |
| 9 | Shannon Rowbury | United States (USA) | 14:59.92 | |
| 10 | Eilish McColgan | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 15:00.43 | |
| 11 | Letesenbet Gidey | Ethiopia (ETH) | 15:04.99 | |
| 12 | Molly Huddle | United States (USA) | 15:05.28 | |
| 13 | Shelby Houlihan | United States (USA) | 15:06.40 | |
| 14 | Kalkidan Gezahegne | Bahrain (BHR) | 15:28.21 | |
| | Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal | Norway (NOR) | DNF | |