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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] The winning margin was 1.00 second.

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

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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

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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

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

References

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  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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