Rene Herrera represented the country in the men's 5000 meters event, where he was the only competitor from Southeast Asia. Herrera was a specialist in the 3000 meter steeplechase, having won the gold at the previous five Southeast Asian Games, but was drafted to run the 5000 meters event in the Olympics because of the availability of a slot to compete under the universality rule. He finished the heat with a time of 14:44.11, which was a personal best, and just 10 seconds off his target time. In spite of that, he finished with the slowest time of the 42 starters in the heats, and did not move on to the finals.