The first casualty of the 5,000m heats was Sileshi Sihine, the 10,000m silver medallist and among the favourites for this crown, who withdrew on the morning of the race due to "exhaustion", according to Ethiopian officials.

Announcing the decision, Ethiopian team technical leader Dube Jillo said, “Sileshi ran a very difficult race in the 10,000m. That took a lot of effort out of him and he feels that he is not up to the challenge of a heat and a final in the 5,000m.”

The qualifying criteria for Sunday's final was first five in the two heats plus the five fastest losers, so there must have been a lot of runners  in the first heat over-confident in the ability of their finishing kicks.

The bulk of the pack dawdled through the opening 10 laps, content to sit back and watch as Erik Sjoqvist, of Sweden, opted to run in splendid isolation.

Sjoqvist built up an 80m lead within the first kilometres, which he maintained until less than 700m to go, when he was swallowed up by the group and spat out the other side. Bold, but hardly effective.

The last-lap burn up, after the 4km mark had been reached by Sjoqvist in 11:10.67, was won by Tariku Bekele, barely a stride and less than half a second ahead of Spain's Jesus Espana, Bernard Lagat, "fresh" from his 1,500m victory the night before, and Morocco's Hicham Bellani.

But with the heat being won in 13min 46.42sec (perhaps just the sort of easy leg-stretcher that Lagat might have liked), those outside the top five would have a futile wait to confirm that they had not done enough work to get to race again in Osaka.

Because, allied with their running ability, the runners in the second heat exhibited some intelligence, ensuring the pace was quick enough throughout (2:45 per kilometre) to get 10 of them through behind Kenya's 2003 World champion Eliud Kipchoge's 13:33.37.

The end-of-race burn up was all a bit too quick for Germany's European 10,000m champion, Jan Fischen, and Bahrain's Aadam Ismaeel Khamis.

But those going through in the top five included Abraham Cherkos (ETH) and Craig Mottram (AUS), with Britain's Mo Farah (a European silver medallist last year) and defending champion Benjamin Limo (KEN), among the fastest losers, the slowest of whom, Felix Kibore (QAT), in 13:46.23, was quicker than everyone in heat one.

Osaka 2007 News Team/sd