2012 London Olympics Track And Field Results: Bernard Lagat And The 5000-Meter

Former Washington State track star Bernard Lagat went for his third career medal today in Olympic Stadium at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Lagat was looking to bounce back from a disappointing performance in Beijing, where he failed to medal and was hampered by injury. Results are after the jump.

While at WSU, Lagat won three NCAA Championships. He has since lived in the United States, earning citizenship in 2005 and is representing the USA for the second straight Olympics. He had previously ran for his native country of Kenya. As far as I can tell, Lagat is WSU's only two-time Olympic medalist.

Lagat was joined by fellow USA teammates Galen Rupp, a graduate of the University of Oregon and silver medalist in the 10,000, and Lopez Lomong, who has a pretty awesome story if you haven't read it yet.

Find out how our fellow Coug did after the jump.

Mo Farah, the British star who won Gold in the 10,000, earned his second gold of the Olympics, sprinting to the finish ahead of the pack. Galen Rupp finished nowhere near the leaders.

So what about Bernard?

Lagat entered the final turn with the lead group of six runners. He looked poised to make his trademark sprint to the finish and claim his third Olympic medal. Unfortunately, the runner behind him got caught up in his feet, causing Lagat to stumble slightly. The small hesitation left Lagat with too much ground to cover on the final straightaway, and he finished in the most dreaded of Olympic positions - 4th.

Bernard was closing in the last 100 meters, and had this been a 5100-meter race, he may have been able to recover.

In the end, he ran a great race, using solid tactics to put himself in position to medal, it was just an unfortunate circumstance. To his credit, he was incredibly gracious after the race, as he was one of the first to congratulate Farah on his victory.

A true Coug who continues to make the Washington State University community proud.

Here are the full results (from Google search):

		Mohamed Farah	13:41.66
		Dejen Gebremeskel	13:41.98
		Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa	13:42.36
4		Bernard Lagat	13:42.99
5		Isiah Kiplangat Koech	13:43.83
6		Abdalaati Iguider	13:44.19
7		Galen Rupp	13:45.04
8		Juan Luis Barrios	13:45.30
9		Hayle Ibrahimov	13:45.37
10		Lopez Lomong	13:48.19
11		Hagos Gebrhiwet	13:49.59
12		Yenew Alamirew	13:49.68
13		Mumin Gala	13:50.26
14		Cameron Levins	13:51.87
15		Moses Ndiema Kipsiro	13:52.25