To this day, no one has crashed out of the Olympic 5,000m final with a faster time than Lasse Orimus in Montreal 1976.
7.8. 20:05•Updated 1:55
Pensioner Lasse Orimus, 74, watched the heats of the men’s 5,000 meters from the Olympic Stadium in Paris with amusement on Wednesday. The team representing Bahrain was the first to drop out of the finals Birhanu Balew at 13:53,11.
It means that Orimus has held a very special Olympic record for more than 48 years. He ran at the Olympic Games in Montreal on July 28, 1976 in the third heat with a time of 13:23.43, which was the first time he missed the final.
After Montreal, they are competing in the Summer Olympics for the 12th time, and no one has been out of the 5,000-meter final with such a tough finish.
– Yes, I certainly watched the preliminaries a bit with that eye to see if this record would still remain for me, and it did. It’s strange, Orimus told Urheilu by phone on Wednesday.
– Of course, I would rather have taken the last final place in Montreal than to be the holder of such a record.
In the summer of 1976, before the Olympic Games, Orimus ran his record of 13:18,19, which is still the second time in Finland’s all-time statistics.
Close to losing three times
Orimus has been particularly close to losing its “Olympic record” three times. In 1988 in Seoul, Italy Salvatore Antibos disappointed with a time of 13:25.64, in London 2012 Eritrean Abrar Osman Adem with a time of 13:24,40 and in Rio 2016 Ugandan Philip Kipyeko with clocking 13:24,66.
As is well remembered, Orimus had to watch the final from the sidelines in Montreal, which Lasse Viren won with a time of 13:24.76. Viren went to the final in his heat with a time of 13:33,39, another Finnish finalist Pekka To Päivrinna 13:45.77 was enough.
The speed of Orimus’ preliminary round was due to the fact that the first four from each round made it directly to the final, but in addition, there were two places in the final competition based on times. In the last heat, the results of the others were known and the pace was accordingly.
Lasse Orimus has mapped out one favorite for the 5,000 meters in Paris.
– I believe that the Jakob Ingebrigtsen win.