The men’s 5,000m at the Oslo Diamond League on Thursday had the firepower to be something special with the likes of world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and his compatriot, Jacob Kiplimo. However, it wasn’t the likely candidates who stole the show. Instead, 30-year-old Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet clocked the second-fastest 5K time in history–12:36.73 to break the Ethiopian national record.
SO CLOSE 😮💨
🇪🇹’s Hagos Gebrhiwet runs 12:36.73 to rule the 5000m at the @BislettGames 👀
Second fastest 5000m in history ✅
Ethiopian record ✅#DiamondLeague pic.twitter.com/Cfsb1F4tv3— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) May 30, 2024
Gebrhiwet’s time wasn’t only a national record, but an Oslo Bislett Games meet record, a personal best and the fastest time in the world this year. He took nearly six seconds off his previous best of 12:42.18 and broke Kenenisa Bekele’s Ethiopian record mark of 12:37.35, set on May 31, 2004.
Speaking to the media post-race, Gebrhiwet said he hopes this result will help him be selected for the Ethiopian team for the 10,000m event at the 2024 Olympics.
The only man who has ever run faster than Gebrhiwet is Cheptegei, who finished ninth in Thursday’s race, with a time of 12:51.94.
Gebrhiwet’s compatriot, Yomif Kejelcha, finished two seconds behind him, with a personal best of 12:38.95. The reigning world XC champion, Kiplimo, finished third, also with a personal best, of 12:40.96. There were 13 personal bests set among the 19 athletes in the field, including six national records.
Gebrhiwet first broke 13 minutes for the 5K 12 years ago on the same track in Oslo. He is the reigning world champion for the 5K distance on the road, and won an Olympic bronze medal for the distance at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen dives to 1,500m
Thousands of eager Norwegian fans came to see their country’s track star, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, at Bislett Stadium, and he delivered. The 23-year-old dove across the finish line to win the men’s 1,500m by three one-hundredths of a second over a surging Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, in a world-leading time of 3:29.74. This was Ingebrigtsen’s first 1,500m race of the 2024 season.
— SportMedia (@SportNMedia) May 30, 2024
Ingebrigtsen will now return to training as he begins to prepare for the 2024 European Championships in Rome in two weeks.
No Canadian athletes were competing at Oslo Diamond League, but there will be four in action at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday, June 2: Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (men’s 1,500m), Jean-Simon Desgagnés (3,000m SC) and Sarah Mitton (shot put).
