Womens 5000m | TheFinalSprint.com - Track & Field, Marathons, Racing News, Training Advice, Elite Athlete Blogs, Interviews, Podcasts, Videos and More!

Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Preview: Women’s 5000 Meters

Posted August 12th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Women’s 5000 Meters

The Schedule: heats, Tuesday Aug 19; finals, Friday, Aug 22
The Americans: #6 Shalane Flanagan, #7 Kara Goucher, #12 Jen Rhines
The Contenders: #1 Meseret Defar (ETH), #2 Gulnara Samitova-Galkina (RUS) #3 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), #4 Meselech Melkamu (ETH) #5 Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet (KEN), #8 Penina Chepchumba (KEN), #22 Liliya Shobukhova (RUS)
The Stats: Records, 2008 List, 2007 Worlds, 2004 Olympics
The Medal Picks: T&FN - Defar, T Dibaba, Melkamu; SI - T Dibaba, Defar, Jepleting
The Story: While everyone knows the men’s 100 and high hurdles will be great showdowns, this race has been getting short shrift. Too bad, because it’s going to be a great race.

Teammates Dibaba and Defar have owned the long distances for several years. They have not raced each other head-to-head this year, but did appear in separate 3k and 2-mile races in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games. Dibaba broke the 5k World Record in Oslo’s Bislett Games, running 14:11.15; later in the summer, Defar ran 14:12.88 in Stockholm. Both are strong and have withering kicks. It will be a war.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink

Faces in Races: Rhines, Fleshman, and Lambie Looking for Olympic Berths in Women’s 5000m

Posted July 4th, 2008 at 12:03 PM by Jared Markowitz

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

The Women’s 5000m at the 2008 US Olympic Trials will feature several women who could be legitimate medal contenders in Beijing. Leading the pack will be Shalane Flanagan, the American Record holder in both the 5000m and the 10000m. Joining her will be fellow 10000m Olympian Kara Goucher, who was third in the that event at the World Championships in Osaka last summer. Another favorite will be Villanova alum Jen Rhines, a two time Olympian (10000m in 2000, marathon in 2004). Former Stanford star Lauren Fleshman has been outstanding in 2008 and rounds out the group of four women who have broken 15:00 in the qualifying window.

As in the other distance races, the A standard will be in play for this final. That is, the Olympic team will be comprised of the top three finishers who have run the A standard previously or in this race. The A standard in the women’s 5000m is 15:09, and the aforementioned four (Flanagan, Rhines, Goucher, Fleshman) are the only runners in the field who have reached that mark. It is likely that the three Olympians will be among this group, but there are several other strong contenders. Below we profile three runners in this final: Rhines, Fleshman, and Massachusetts native and Stanford alum Arianna Lambie. Finally, we make some picks for what should be yet another fantastic distance final.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comment on this post | Permalink