# Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The Men's 5000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany took place on 7 and 10 September 1972.
Having won the 10,000 metres a week earlier, Lasse Virén controlled the pace through the first 2000 metres in 5:32.61. David Bedford, tired of the slow pace, passing Viren and leading a crowd to go around to a faster pace. As the pace accelerated, Javier Álvarez came from the rear around the field to take the point for the next kilometre. At 3200 metres, Nikolay Sviridov challenged for the lead.
Steve Prefontaine took the lead at 3400 metres. Over the next lap, Viren came from sixth place in line to mark Prefontaine. Viren was in turn marked by Emiel Puttemans. A five-man breakaway formed. With 850 metres to go, Viren passed Prefontaine. Down the back stretch, Prefontaine strained back into the lead. 50 metres before the bell, Viren took the lead again, with Mohammed Gammoudi breaking off the remaining group to mark the leaders.
Down the final backstretch, Gammoudi eased around Viren while Prefontaine hit almost a full sprint to get on Gammoudi's shoulder. With 200 to go, Prefontaine relaxed and Viren moved ahead of him. Prefontaine surged again to keep pace. In the middle of the final turn, Virén changed gears into his full sprint, taking the lead. Gammoudi couldn't keep pace and began to watch Prefontaine while trying to hold on to the silver medal. Mid-straightaway all three checked the position of their rivals as Prefontaine took one more surge after Gammoudi. As it was quickly clear he couldn't make enough progress, Prefontaine strained. Ian Stewart came from the chasing group in full sprint gaining rapidly. As Stewart caught him from behind, Prefontaine fell apart, struggling the final steps. He was killed in a car crash in 1975.
Virén successfully defended both titles in 1976.

## Results
### Heats

Qualification rule: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) advance to the Final.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Emiel Puttemans | Belgium | 13:31.8 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Steve Prefontaine | United States | 13:32.6 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Juha Väätäinen | Finland | 13:32.8 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Ian Stewart | Great Britain | 13:33.0 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Harald Norpoth | West Germany | 13:33.4 | q |
| 6 | 4 | Mariano Haro | Spain | 13:35.4 | q |
| 7 | 2 | Javier Álvarez | Spain | 13:36.6 | q |
| 8 | 3 | Ian McCafferty | Great Britain | 13:38.2 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | Frank Eisenberg | East Germany | 13:38.4 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | Lasse Virén | Finland | 13:38.4 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | Nikolay Sviridov | Soviet Union | 13:38.4 | Q |
| 12 | 3 | Per Halle | Norway | 13:38.6 | q |
| 13 | 5 | Josef Jánský | Czechoslovakia | 13:39.8 | |
| 14 | 3 | Dušan Moravčík | Czechoslovakia | 13:40.4 | |
| 15 | 5 | George Young | United States | 13:41.2 | |
| 16 | 3 | Paul Mose | Kenya | 13:41.4 | |
| 17 | 3 | Tapio Kantanen | Finland | 13:42.0 | |
| 18 | 3 | Tony Benson | Australia | 13:42.8 | |
| 19 | 5 | Edmundo Warnke | Chile | 13:43.6 | |
| 20 | 2 | Grant McLaren | Canada | 13:43.8 | |
| 21 | 5 | Bob Finlay | Canada | 13:44.0 | |
| 22 | 5 | Keisuke Sawaki | Japan | 13:44.8 | |
| 23 | 3 | Boualem Rahoui | Algeria | 13:45.0 | |
| 24 | 2 | Pedro Miranda | Mexico | 13:45.2 | |
| 25 | 4 | Tolossa Kotu | Ethiopia | 13:46.2 | |
| 26 | 5 | Bronisław Malinowski | Poland | 13:48.2 | |
| 27 | 1 | Mohamed Gammoudi | Tunisia | 13:49.8 | Q |
| 28 | 1 | David Bedford | Great Britain | 13:49.8 | Q |
| 29 | 3 | Tekle Fitinsa | Ethiopia | 13:50.4 | |
| 30 | 4 | Willy Polleunis | Belgium | 13:52.6 | |
| 31 | 3 | Dick Tayler | New Zealand | 13:56.2 | |
| 32 | 1 | Ben Jipcho | Kenya | 13:56.8 | |
| 33 | 1 | Anders Gärderud | Sweden | 13:57.2 | |
| 34 | 4 | Nikolay Puklakov | Soviet Union | 13:57.6 | |
| 35 | 1 | Michael Keogh | Ireland | 13:57.8 | |
| 36 | 1 | René Goris | Belgium | 13:57.8 | |
| 37 | 4 | Mario Pérez | Mexico | 13:58.2 | |
| 38 | 3 | Edward Sequeira | India | 14:01.4 | |
| 39 | 1 | Arne Risa | Norway | 14:01.6 | |
| 40 | 5 | Jürgen May | West Germany | 14:06.6 | |
| 41 | 4 | Leonard Hilton | United States | 14:07.2 | |
| 42 | 2 | Vladimir Afonin | Soviet Union | 14:08.6 | |
| 43 | 5 | Gavin Thorley | New Zealand | 14:11.6 | |
| 44 | 1 | Takaharu Koyama | Japan | 14:12.6 | |
| 45 | 4 | Wolfgang Riesinger | West Germany | 14:15.2 | |
| 46 | 4 | Knut Børø | Norway | 14:15.8 | |
| 47 | 4 | Jørn Lauenbourg | Denmark | 14:18.8 | |
| 48 | 5 | Hikmet Şen | Turkey | 14:26.0 | |
| 49 | 1 | Carlos Lopes | Portugal | 14:29.6 | |
| 50 | 2 | Raymond Zembri | France | 14:34.4 | |
| 51 | 3 | John Hartnett | Ireland | 14:34.6 | |
| 52 | 2 | Dick Quax | New Zealand | 14:35.2 | |
| 53 | 4 | Evans Mogaka | Kenya | 14:37.2 | |
| 54 | 4 | Ngwila Musonda | Zambia | 14:37.4 | |
| 55 | 2 | Gert Kærlin | Denmark | 14:39.2 | |
| 56 | 5 | Fritz Rüegsegger | Switzerland | 14:54.4 | |
| 57 | 1 | Nji Esau Ade | Cameroon | 15:19.6 | |
| 58 | 5 | Usaia Sotutu | Fiji | 15:24.2 | |
| 59 | 1 | P. C. Suppiah | Singapore | 15:36.6 | |
| 60 | 3 | Abdullah Al-Mabrouk | Saudi Arabia | 15:51.0 | |
| 61 | 2 | Carlos Cuque | Guatemala | 15:53.4 | |
| | 1 | Jadour Haddou | Morocco | DNS | |
| | 1 | Siatka Badji | Senegal | DNS | |
| | 1 | Dane Korica | Yugoslavia | DNS | |
| | 2 | Mikhail Jelev | Bulgaria | DNS | |
| | 2 | Rafael Ángel Pérez | Costa Rica | DNS | |
| | 2 | Kerry O'Brian | Australia | DNS | |
| | 3 | Jos Hermens | Netherlands | DNS | |
| | 4 | Ardelham Khamis | Egypt | DNS | |
| | 5 | Miruts Yifter | Ethiopia | DNS | |
| | 5 | Crispin Quispe | Bolivia | DNS | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | Lasse Virén | Finland | 13:26.4 |
| | Mohamed Gammoudi | Tunisia | 13:27.4 |
| | Ian Stewart | Great Britain | 13:27.6 |
| 4 | Steve Prefontaine | United States | 13:28.4 |
| 5 | Emiel Puttemans | Belgium | 13:30.8 |
| 6 | Harald Norpoth | West Germany | 13:32.6 |
| 7 | Per Halle | Norway | 13:34.4 |
| 8 | Nikolay Sviridov | Soviet Union | 13:39.4 |
| 9 | Frank Eisenberg | East Germany | 13:40.8 |
| 10 | Javier Álvarez | Spain | 13:41.8 |
| 11 | Ian McCafferty | Great Britain | 13:43.2 |
| 12 | David Bedford | Great Britain | 13:43.2 |
| 13 | Juha Väätäinen | Finland | 13:53.8 |
| | Mariano Haro | Spain | DNS |

## Sources

* "Official Olympic Reports". la84foundation.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007.