5,000 metres, Men

This was the second men’s speed skating event in Sarajevo, coming two days after the 500 m. Sweden’s Tomas Gustafson started in the first pair. He was the 1982 European Champion, had been runner-up at the 1983 World Championships to Norway’s Rolf Falk-Larssen, and was the world record holder at 10,000 m. When he finished in 7:12.28, far from Aleksandr Baranov’s world record of 6:45.66, and almost 10 seconds slower than Eric Heiden‘s Olympic record, he did not think the time would be good enough for the podium. But it held up for two pairs. In the fourth pair, Igor Malkov set a fast pace, and was over a second ahead of Gustafson at 4,200 metres. But he faded badly on the final two laps, barely finishing behind the Swede, in 7:12.30. Malkov’s pairmate, East German Andreas Ehrig, was also ahead of Gustafson’s pace at 4,200 metres, but was hardly able to finish the race, crossing in 7:17.63, his last lap almost four seconds slower than Gustafson’s. In the seventh pair, Ehrig’s East German teammate, René Schöfisch, skated more reasonably, and finished in 7:17.49, which would win him the bronze medal. This was completely unexpected, as previously he had only won the 1983 GDR 5 and 10k championships. In the end, Gustafson watched the entire field take a crack at his time, but nobody bettered it and he had a gold medal. Six days later he would win a silver in the 10K and at Calgary, in 1988, he would gold medals in both the 5 and 10K.