# Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The men's 5,000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 25 and 28. The winning margin was 0.20 seconds.
The final witnessed an epic clash between two track greats from different generations: in his final competitive international race, 1500m champion and track legend Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and 10,000m Olympic champion, world record holder at the distance and rising star 21-year-old Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. The race had a preview at the World Championships a year earlier. There the medalists were barely separated, but the young World Junior record holder Eliud Kipchoge upset the stars by taking gold after El Guerrouj had tried to break away on the final lap.
Here Bekele took an early lead, but instead chose not to push the pace. That duty fell onto Kipchoge, who had watched from behind the year before. Here, El Guerrouj spent most of the race watching from several places behind the lead. As the last lap began, El Guerrouj moved toward the front. Bekele challenged Kipchoge with 200 metres to go. It was a shoulder to shoulder all out sprint battle as Kipchoge refused to let Bekele by, but he couldn't hold him off. Bekele broke out at a lead of several metres. El Guerrouj first ran down Kipchoge, then overhauled the Ethiopian in the final strides to win by just two tenths of a second. With this, El Guerrouj set a historic milestone as the first ever athlete to strike a distance double (1500–5000) since Paavo Nurmi did so in 1924, denying Bekele a chance to do the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m double – which he would ultimately win four years later in Beijing.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:
| World record | Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) | 12:37.35 | Hengelo, Netherlands | 31 May 2004 |
| Olympic record | Saïd Aouita (MAR) | 13:05.59 | Los Angeles, United States | 11 August 1984 |
| World Leading | Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) | 12:37.35 | Hengelo, Netherlands | 31 May 2004 |
No new records were set during the competition.

## Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 5000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 13:21.50 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 13:25.40 or faster could be entered.

## Schedule

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Wednesday, 25 August 2004 | 19:50 | Round 1 |
| Saturday, 28 August 2004 | 21:05 | Final |

## Results
### Round 1

Qualification rule: The first five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next five fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Kenenisa Bekele | Ethiopia | 13:21.16 | Q |
| 2 | Gebregziabher Gebremariam | Ethiopia | 13:21.20 | Q |
| 3 | Hicham El Guerrouj | Morocco | 13:21.87 | Q |
| 4 | Craig Mottram | Australia | 13:21.88 | Q |
| 5 | Abraham Chebii | Kenya | 13:22.30 | Q |
| 6 | Hicham Bellani | Morocco | 13:22.64 | q |
| 7 | Alistair Ian Cragg | Ireland | 13:23.01 | q |
| 8 | Samir Moussaoui | Algeria | 13:24.98 | q |
| 9 | Sultan Khamis Zaman | Qatar | 13:26.52 | |
| 10 | John Mayock | Great Britain | 13:26.81 | |
| 11 | Günther Weidlinger | Austria | 13:29.32 | |
| 12 | Christian Belz | Switzerland | 13:29.59 | |
| 13 | Alejandro Suárez | Mexico | 13:35.32 | |
| 14 | Jonathon Riley | United States | 13:38.79 | |
| 15 | Mohammed Abdelhak Zakaria | Bahrain | 13:42.04 | |
| 16 | Monder Rizki | Belgium | 14:03.58 | |
| 17 | Serhiy Lebid | Ukraine | 14:10.23 | |
| | Carlos García | Spain | DNF | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Result | Notes |
| 1 | Ali Saidi Sief | Algeria | 13:18.94 | Q |
| 2 | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 13:19.01 | Q |
| 3 | Dejene Berhanu | Ethiopia | 13:19.42 | Q |
| 4 | John Kibowen | Kenya | 13:19.65 | Q |
| 5 | Abderrahim Goumri | Morocco | 13:20.03 | Q |
| 6 | Tim Broe | United States | 13:20.29 | q |
| 7 | Zersenay Tadese | Eritrea | 13:22.17 | q |
| 8 | Samson Kiflemariam | Eritrea | 13:26.97 | |
| 9 | Roberto García | Spain | 13:27.71 | |
| 10 | Khoudir Aggoune | Algeria | 13:29.37 | |
| 11 | Fabiano Joseph Naasi | Tanzania | 13:31.89 | |
| 12 | Marius Bakken | Norway | 13:36.38 | |
| 13 | Freddy González | Venezuela | 13:42.44 | |
| 14 | Tom Compernolle | Belgium | 13:43.44 | |
| 15 | Mark Carroll | Ireland | 13:46.81 | |
| 16 | Carles Castillejo | Spain | 13:49.16 | |
| 17 | Michael Aish | New Zealand | 13:50.00 | |
| 18 | Rajendra Bahadur Bhandari | Nepal | 14:04.89 | NR |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Result |
| | Hicham El Guerrouj | Morocco | 13:14.39 |
| | Kenenisa Bekele | Ethiopia | 13:14.59 |
| | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 13:15.10 |
| 4 | Gebregziabher Gebremariam | Ethiopia | 13:15.35 |
| 5 | Dejene Berhanu | Ethiopia | 13:16.92 |
| 6 | John Kibowen | Kenya | 13:18.24 |
| 7 | Zersenay Tadese | Eritrea | 13:24.31 |
| 8 | Craig Mottram | Australia | 13:25.70 |
| 9 | Hicham Bellani | Morocco | 13:31.81 |
| 10 | Ali Saidi Sief | Algeria | 13:32.57 |
| 11 | Tim Broe | United States | 13:33.06 |
| 12 | Alistair Ian Cragg | Ireland | 13:43.06 |
| 13 | Abderrahim Goumri | Morocco | 13:47.27 |
| 14 | Samir Moussaoui | Algeria | 14:02.01 |
| | Abraham Chebii | Kenya | DNF |