The charts summarize the number of athletes each country placed in the
world top 100 rankings for 2000 (plus ties) and the highest-ranked of
these. Since one or two placings may represent only exceptional
individuals, rather than national program strength, I've truncated the
lists to three placings or more. The data base drawn upon is the world
list from Mirko Jalava's web site <http://www.tilastopaja.com/>.
MEN'S 5,000 METERS 2000 WOMEN'S 5,000 METERS 2000
Country Top 100 Highest Country Top 100 Highest
Kenya 35 4 United States 12 10
Ethiopia 10 9 Kenya 11 2
United States 9 37 Japan 11 61
Spain 7 25 Ethiopia 10 1
Morocco 5 1 Russia 6 6
Australia 4 58 Australia 6 32
Italy 4 61 Ireland 5 4
France 3 32 China 4 26
Germany 3 59 Spain 4 39
Romania 3 3
France 3 15
Mexico 3 47
Italy 3 61
24 countries represented 29 countries represented
100th = 13:28.65 100th = 15:29.36
It might be noticed that the women's 5K has an unusually wide distribution
of quality athletes. By that, I don't mean the total number of countries
represented in the top 100. There were far more, for example, in the men's
and women's high jump. What is unusual is that there are 13 countries with
three or more top-100 representatives, and that no country has more than
twelve.
MEN'S 10,000 METERS 2000 WOMEN'S 10,000 METERS 2000
Country Top 100 Highest Country Top 100 Highest
Kenya 29 1 Japan 23 13
Japan 19 22 United States 10 33
Spain 7 9 Russia 8 16
Ethiopia 5 4 China 7 12
Great Britain 4 25 Ethiopia 6 1
United States 4 30 Kenya 6 5
Italy 4 36 Portugal 4 3
Morocco 3 13 Italy 4 11
Mexico 3 17 Spain 4 25
Portugal 3 48 Germany 3 34
Australia 3 39
24 countries represented 26 countries represented
100th = 28:16.00 100th = 32:32.77
