Wikipedia

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 10,000 metres

The men's 10,000 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was held on 31 August and 3 September. This event featured a qualifying round for the first time since the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The favorites in the event included Belgium's Emiel Puttemans, Great Britain's Dave Bedford, and Finland's Lasse Virén.[1]

Men's 10,000 metres
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
VenueOlympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Date3 September 1972
Competitors51 from 33 nations
Winning time27:38.35 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Lasse Virén  Finland
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Emiel Puttemans  Belgium
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Miruts Yifter  Ethiopia
← 1968
1976 →
Official video highlights

The men's 10,000 metres final was notable for Lasse Virén's world record performance.[2] At the start of the race, Bedford led the pace; he maintained a world record pace at the 4000 m mark, and he still led halfway through the race. On the 12th lap, just before the halfway point, Virén and Tunisia's Mohammed Gammoudi, 10,000 m bronze medalist and 5000 m gold medalist in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, tangled into each other and fell onto the track.[1] Both recovered, and while Gammoudi fell out of the race two laps later, Virén caught up to the front and passed Bedford to take the lead at about the 6000 m mark.[2]

With Virén leading for the rest of the race, the lead pack reduced to five competitors with 600 m remaining when he made his charge.[3] He ran the final lap (the last 400 m) in 56.4 seconds; he won the gold medal, beating runner-up Puttemans by 7 m and setting a world record time of 27:38.35.[1][2] Virén would go on to win the 5000 metres event, where he would set an Olympic record there; he also went on to win both the 10,000 metres and 5000 metres races at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.[2]

The Guardian listed Virén's world record performance as the greatest sport comeback of all time.[2]

Heats edit

The top four runners in each of the three heats (blue) and the next three fastest (green), advanced to the final round.

Heat one

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Emiel Puttemans   Belgium 27:53.28 OR
2 Dave Bedford   Great Britain 27:53.64
3 Javier Álvarez   Spain 28:08.58
4 Abdel Kader Zaddem   Tunisia 28:14.70
5 Josef Jánský   Czechoslovakia 28:23.15
6 Anatoly Badrankov   Soviet Union 28:35.84
7 Noël Tijou   France 28:36.08
8 Werner Dössegger   Switzerland 28:36.4
9 Tadesse Wolde-Medhin   Ethiopia 28:45.4
10 Akio Usami   Japan 29:24.8
11 Jeff Galloway   United States 29:35.0
12 Naftali Temu   Kenya 30:19.6
13 Esaie Fongang   Cameroon 31:32.6
14 P. C. Suppiah[4]   Singapore 31:59.2
15 Crispin Quispe   Bolivia 32:31.8
16 Giuseppe Cindolo   Italy 33:03.4
– Günter Mielke   West Germany DNF
– Usaia Sotutu   Fiji DNF

Heat two

Rank Name Nationality Time
1 Mohammed Gammoudi   Tunisia 27:54.69
2 Mariano Haro   Spain 27:55.89
3 Frank Shorter   United States 27:58.23
4 Lasse Virén   Finland 28:04.41
5 Paul Mose   Kenya 28:18.74
6 Rashid Sharafetdinov   Soviet Union 28:24.64
7 Wohib Masresha   Ethiopia 28:28.2
8 Pedro Miranda   Mexico 28:35.8
9 Karel Lismont   Belgium 28:41.8
10 Neil Cusack   Ireland 28:45.8
11 Dave Holt   Great Britain 28:46.8
12 Keisuke Sawaki   Japan 29:29.0
13 Rafael Pérez   Costa Rica 29:36.6
14 Julio Quevedo   Guatemala 30:08.4
15 Abdel Hamid Khamis   Egypt 30:19.2
16 Lucien Rosa   Ceylon 30:20.2
– Richard Mabuza   Swaziland DNF
– Abdi Gulet   Somalia DNS
– Per Halle   Norway DNS

Heat three

Rank Name Nationality Time
1 Miruts Yifter   Ethiopia 28:18.11
2 Willy Polleunis   Belgium 28:19.71
3 Pavlo Andreiev   Soviet Union 28:20.97
4 Dane Korica   Yugoslavia 28:22.24
5 Juan Martínez   Mexico 28:23.14
6 Lachie Stewart   Great Britain 28:31.33
7 Arne Risa   Norway 28:31.74
8 Jon Anderson   United States 28:34.2
9 Carlos Lopes   Portugal 28:53.6
10 Albrecht Moser   Switzerland 29:05.8
11 Richard Juma   Kenya 29:13.0
12 Domingo Tibaduiza   Colombia 29:24.0
13 Shaq Musa Medani   Sudan 29:32.8
14 Manfred Letzerich   West Germany 29:37.8
15 Hikmet Şen   Turkey 29:51.8
– Anilus Joseph   Haiti DNF
– Gavin Thorley   New Zealand DNF
– Juha Väätäinen   Finland DNS
– Edmundo Warnke   Chile DNS

Final edit

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
  Lasse Virén   Finland 27:38.35 WR
  Emiel Puttemans   Belgium 27:39.35
  Miruts Yifter   Ethiopia 27:40.96
4 Mariano Haro   Spain 27:48.14
5 Frank Shorter   United States 27:51.32
6 Dave Bedford   Great Britain 28:05.44
7 Dane Korica   Yugoslavia 28:15.18
8 Abdel Kader Zaddem   Tunisia 28:18.17
9 Josef Jánský   Czechoslovakia 28:23.59
10 Juan Martínez   Mexico 28:44.08
11 Pavlo Andreiev   Soviet Union 28:46.27
12 Javier Álvarez   Spain 28:56.38
13 Paul Mose   Kenya 29:02.87
14 Willy Polleunis   Belgium 29:10.15
– Mohammed Gammoudi   Tunisia DNF

Sources edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Athletics at the 1972 Munich Games: Men's 10,000 metres". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Hendersen, John (7 October 2001). "The 10 greatest comebacks of all time". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  3. ^ Tanser, Toby (September 2004). "Last of the Nordic Gods: Lasse Viren's training and triumphs". Running Times. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  4. ^ "Official Olympic Reports: 1972 Munich Volume 3" (PDF). la84foundation.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.
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