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| Event type

10,000 metres, Men

Date 4 August 2012 — 21:15
StatusOlympic
LocationOlympic Stadium, Olympic Park, Stratford, London
Participants29 from 18 countries
FormatFinal only.

The 10K final was held on the second night of athletics at the 2012 Olympic Stadium. Only hours before the race started Britain’s Greg Rutherford had won gold in the long jump, followed shortly by Jessica Ennis completing her heptathlon gold medal, with both victories bringing the pro-British crowd to a frenzy. The frenzy would only get more intense. The two-time defending champion was Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele but he had had a difficult year with injuries and his form was not known coming into London. Britain posted their hopes on Mo Farah, silver medalist in the event at the 2011 World Championships. Farah would run together with his training partner, American Galen Rupp, both of them coached by 1984 Olympian and former marathon world-record golder Alberto Salazar.

Farah and Rupp wanted a slow pace and to kick off it, but the other finalists must not have heard that. Bekele ran 65.2 for the opening lap but then jogged through the second in 73.2 and the third lap was even slower. The pace was lethargic with 5K passed only in 14:05.79. It was only in the final three laps that the pace quickened with Farah taking the lead at the bell. He led throughout the final laps as the African runners could not get to him. On the final turn, Rupp moved into third and on the final straight he outsprinted Ethiopian Tariku Bekele to win silver behind Farah, who ran 53.4 for his final lap. The Olympic Stadium rocked for the third British gold in only a few hours.

Farah would come back seven days later to win the distance double of 5/10K. Rupp’s medal in the 10K was the first for an American since Billy Mills had won the event at the 1964 Olympics. Kenenisa Bekele trailed back in fourth in his attempt to three-peat.

PosNrAthleteNOCTime (A)
11808Mo FarahGBR27:30.42Gold
23250Galen RuppUSA27:30.90Silver
31680Tariku BekeleETH27:31.43Bronze
41679Kenenisa BekeleETH27:32.44
52313Bedan Karoki MuchiriKEN27:32.94
61599Zersenay TadeseERI27:33.51
71597Teklemariam MedhinERI27:34.76
81686Gebre Egziabher GebremariamETH27:36.34
93073Polat ArıkanTUR27:38.81
103114Moses KipsiroUGA27:39.22
111293Cam LevinsCAN27:40.68
122311Moses MasaiKEN27:41.34
133247Dathan RitzenheinUSA27:45.89
142904Robert KajugaRWA27:56.67
151600Nguse TesfaldetERI27:56.78
163110Thomas AyekoUGA27:58.96
172371Moukheld Al-OutaibiKSA28:07.25
181279Moh AhmedCAN28:13.91
193257Matt TegenkampUSA28:18.26
201061Ben St. LawrenceAUS28:32.67
212497Diego EstradaMEX28:36.19
222234Yuki SatoJPN28:44.06
231621Ayad LamdassemESP28:49.85
242138Daniele MeucciITA28:57.46
251837Chris ThompsonGBR29:06.14
263136Mykola LabovskyiUKR29:32.12
DNF2301Wilson KipropKEN
DNF1253Hasan MahboobBRN
DNF1575Byron PiedraECU

Splits

1000 m2:54.88Kenenisa Bekele
2000 m5:59.56Wilson Kiprop
3000 m8:42.45Zersenay Tadese
4000 m11:23.16Zersenay Tadese
5000 m14:05.79Zersenay Tadese
6000 m16:52.71Zersenay Tadese
7000 m19:32.58Moses Masai
8000 m22:15.49Moses Masai
9000 m25:01.97Gebre Egziabher Gebremariam