1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 5000 metres

Men's 5000 metres at the 1983 World Championships
Venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Dates	10 August (heats) 12 August (semi-finals) 14 August (final)
Competitors	39
Winning time	13:28.53 CR
Medalists
Eamonn Coghlan   Ireland   Werner Schildhauer   East Germany   Martti Vainio   Finland

These are the official results of the men's 5000 metres event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total of 39 participating athletes, with three qualifying heats, two semi-finals and the final held on Sunday 14 August 1983.

Records

Existing records at the start of the event.

World Record	David Moorcroft (GBR)	13:00.41	Oslo, Norway	July 7, 1982
Championship Record	New event

Results

Qualifying heats

The qualifying heats took place on 10 August, with the 39 athletes involved being split into 3 heats. The first 8 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 6 fastest ( q ) qualified for the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Markus Ryffel	Switzerland (SUI)	13:43.36	Q, CR
2	Wodajo Bulti	Ethiopia (ETH)	13:43.53	Q
3	Eamonn Martin	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	13:43.57	Q
4	Thomas Wessinghage	West Germany (FRG)	13:43.66	Q
5	Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk	Soviet Union (URS)	13:43.78	Q
6	Salvatore Antibo	Italy (ITA)	13:44.05	Q
7	Charles Cheruiyot	Kenya (KEN)	13:44.43	Q
8	Doug Padilla	United States (USA)	13:44.71	Q
9	Filippos Filippou	Greece (GRE)	13:45.24	q
10	Abderrazak Bounour	Algeria (ALG)	13:57.93	q
11	Justin Gloden	Luxembourg (LUX)	14:26.02	q
12	Mohamed Bakheet	Palestine (PLE)	14:52.26
13	Ramón López	Paraguay (PAR)	15:10.29

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Paul Kipkoech	Kenya (KEN)	14:18.73	Q
2	Fethi Baccouche	Tunisia (TUN)	14:23.79	Q
3	Julian Goater	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	14:23.93	Q
4	António Leitão	Portugal (POR)	14:28.63	Q
5	Dmitriy Dmitriyev	Soviet Union (URS)	14:37.75	Q
6	Ronald Lanzoni	Costa Rica (CRC)	14:49.20	Q
7	Werner Schildhauer	East Germany (GDR)	14:49.22	Q
8	Jim Hill	United States (USA)	14:58.21	Q
9	Antoine Nivyobizi	Burundi (BDI)	15:14.60
10	José Jaime Hernández	El Salvador (ESA)	15:29.86
11	Alden Morris	Turks and Caicos Islands (TKS)	18:06.35
	Christoph Herle	West Germany (FRG)		DNS
	Mohamed Kedir	Ethiopia (ETH)		DNS

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Valeriy Abramov	Soviet Union (URS)	14:12.61	Q
2	Seyoum Nigatu	Ethiopia (ETH)	14:13.22	Q
3	Dietmar Millonig	Austria (AUT)	14:13.65	Q
4	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland (IRL)	14:13.80	Q
5	Dave Clarke	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	14:13.97	Q
6	Jorge García	Spain (ESP)	14:14.57	Q
7	Paul Williams	Canada (CAN)	14:15.10	Q
8	Jim Spivey	United States (USA)	14:15.70	Q
9	Ricardo Vera	Uruguay (URU)	14:17.26	q
10	Kenji Ide	Japan (JPN)	14:18.34	q
11	Martti Vainio	Finland (FIN)	14:18.74	q
12	Masini Situ-Kubanza	Zaire (ZAI)	15:02.26
	Hansjörg Kunze	East Germany (GDR)		DNS

Semifinals

The semifinals took place on 12 August, with the 30 athletes involved being splitted into 2 heats. The first 5 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 5 fastest ( q ) qualified for the final.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Markus Ryffel	Switzerland (SUI)	13:32.34	Q, CR
2	Thomas Wessinghage	West Germany (FRG)	13:32.37	Q
3	Werner Schildhauer	East Germany (GDR)	13:32.49	Q
4	Dietmar Millonig	Austria (AUT)	13:32.86	Q
5	Doug Padilla	United States (USA)	13:32.90	Q
6	Paul Kipkoech	Kenya (KEN)	13:33.33	q
7	Julian Goater	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	13:36.21	q
8	Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk	Soviet Union (URS)	13:37.24	q
9	Filippos Filippou	Greece (GRE)	13:40.81
10	Paul Williams	Canada (CAN)	13:50.30
11	Dave Clarke	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	13:58.37
12	Seyoum Nigatu	Ethiopia (ETH)	14:02.23
13	Kenji Ide	Japan (JPN)	14:04.94
14	Justin Gloden	Luxembourg (LUX)	14:12.25
15	Ronald Lanzoni	Costa Rica (CRC)	14:47.30

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dmitriy Dmitriyev	Soviet Union (URS)	13:31.40	Q, CR
2	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland (IRL)	13:31.66	Q
3	António Leitão	Portugal (POR)	13:32.33	Q
4	Wodajo Bulti	Ethiopia (ETH)	13:33.03	Q
5	Salvatore Antibo	Italy (ITA)	13:33.12	Q
6	Valeriy Abramov	Soviet Union (URS)	13:33.37	q
7	Martti Vainio	Finland (FIN)	13:34.18	q
8	Jim Hill	United States (USA)	13:38.56
9	Jim Spivey	United States (USA)	13:43.17
10	Jorge García	Spain (ESP)	13:46.36
11	Eamonn Martin	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	13:48.60
12	Charles Cheruiyot	Kenya (KEN)	13:52.61
13	Abderrazak Bounour	Algeria (ALG)	14:00.78
14	Fethi Baccouche	Tunisia (TUN)	14:19.64
15	Ricardo Vera	Uruguay (URU)	14:20.20

Final

As in most other major international championships, also this 5,000-metre final was mostly slow and tactical. The Soviet Union's Anatoliy Krokhmaliuk led at 1,000 metres in 2:43.30. During the second kilometre, he and his team mate Dmitriy Dmitriyev alternated in the lead, with Dmitriyev clocking 5:34.15 at 2,000 metres. One lap later, Britain's Julian Goater suddenly accelerated, but over 200 metres after the start of his surge, Dmitriyev caught him. Soon thereafter, Dmitriyev again took the lead, and clocked 8:19.52 at 3,000 metres. During the fourth kilometre, Dmitriyev, Ethiopia's Wodajo Bulti, and Switzerland's Markus Ryffel took turns leading the race. With over three laps left, Krokhmaliuk dropped from the lead group. Bulti took the lead for the second and the last time just before 4,000 metres, which he passed in 11:03.27. At the start of the third-last home straight, Dmitriyev accelerated past Bulti. West Germany's Thomas Wessinghage and Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan positioned themselves behind Dmitriyev and Bulti. With two laps left, twelve men were still in the lead group, with Goater and Italy's Salvatore Antibo having dropped from Dmitriyev's pace. On the second-last back straight, the Soviet Union's Valeriy Abramov lost contact with the lead group. Dmitriyev launched his final kick's decisive stage at 4,400 metres. Immediately Ryffel, Portugal's Antonio Leitao, and Austria's Dietmar Millonig dropped from Dmitriyev's pace. At the start of the second-last home straight, Dmitriyev was already sprinting about five metres ahead of Bulti. Later on that home straight, Wessinghage and Coghlan kicked past Bulti, and Coghlan passed Wessinghage. At 4,600 metres, Dmitriyev led in about 12:30. In other words, he had sprinted the second-last lap in about 57 seconds! Coghlan was running about six or seven metres behind this Soviet runner, with Wessinghage, Bulti, Finland's Martti Vainio, the United States' Doug Padilla, East Germany's Werner Schildhauer, and Kenya's Paul Kipkoech still in the lead group. To the surprise of many spectators, Wessinghage dropped from Coghlan's pace on the final lap's front bend. This astonishing event - Wessinghage was a world-class runner at both 1,500 and 5,000 metres - probably inspired Vainio to start his final kick, and to pass Bulti. Further back, Kipkoech dropped from Padilla's and Schildhauer's pace. Early on the final back straight, Coghlan easily caught the tiring Dmitriyev. Vainio kicked past the exhausted Wessinghage. At 4,800 metres, Dmitriyev and Coghlan were running about nine metres ahead of Vainio. On the final bend, Schildhauer passed Padilla and Wessinghage, and dashed after Vainio. Coghlan triumphantly raised his right hand, glanced at the worn out Dmitriyev, and then began his final sprint. By the start of the home straight, Coghlan had already stretched his lead over Dmitriyev to four metres. Vainio was sprinting ten metres behind the Irishman, while Schildhauer was kicking a couple of metres behind the Finn. On the final home straight, without even sprinting as fast as he could, Coghlan moved into a wide lead, crossing the finish line in 13:28.53. In other words, he had run the final 1,000 metres in 2:24.77! Schildhauer passed Vainio with about 25 metres left, and caught Dmitriyev over 10 metres later. The exhausted Soviet runner was no match for the fast-finishing East German. Vainio leaned forward, and lunged across the finish line, crossing it just 0.04 seconds before Dmitriyev. Two of the strongest pre-race favourites, Padilla and Wessinghage, had to settle for the fifth and sixth places, respectively. (The World Track and Field Championships / Yleisurheilun MM-kisat 1983, the Juoksija-lehti / Runner Magazine, Helsinki, Finland, 1983; another book on the IAAF World Championships 1983; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIy0Jpm9moE&t=510s Eamonn Coghlan - World Athletics Championship 5000m Gold, Helsinki 1983.)

The final took place on August 14.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland (IRL)	13:28.53	CR
	Werner Schildhauer	East Germany (GDR)	13:30.20
	Martti Vainio	Finland (FIN)	13:30.34
4	Dmitriy Dmitriyev	Soviet Union (URS)	13:30.38
5	Doug Padilla	United States (USA)	13:32.08
6	Thomas Wessinghage	West Germany (FRG)	13:32.46
7	Wodajo Bulti	Ethiopia (ETH)	13:34.03
8	Dietmar Millonig	Austria (AUT)	13:36.08
9	Paul Kipkoech	Kenya (KEN)	13:37.44
10	António Leitão	Portugal (POR)	13:38.55
11	Valeriy Abramov	Soviet Union (URS)	13:39.80
12	Markus Ryffel	Switzerland (SUI)	13:39.98
13	Salvatore Antibo	Italy (ITA)	13:40.76
14	Julian Goater	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	13:48.13
15	Anatoliy Krokhmalyuk	Soviet Union (URS)	14:00.27