We focus on the women's 3000m and 5000m as part of our IAAF World Championships history series

The first world title over 3000m was awarded in Sittard, Netherlands, in 1980, three years ahead of the inaugural world championships. The discipline was not staged at that year’s Olympics and the winner in Sittard was world junior 1500m record-holder Birgit Friedmann, who broke nine minutes for the first time by winning comfortably in 8:48.05.

In third was Ingrid Christiensen, who under her similar married name of Kristiansen would later destroy the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon world records. The sole Briton, Wendy Smith, failed to finish.

However, in Helsinki as Wendy Sly, she was second for much of the race behind long-time leader Mary Decker until fading on the last lap to fifth, just a few seconds off the medals. The American was passed by double Olympic 1500m champion Tatyana Kazankina down the straight but responded with another kick of her own to win comfortably from German Brigitte Kraus, who passed Kazankina. Jane Furniss made it two Brits in the top seven.

Olympic silver medallist Sly led at the bell in Rome in 1987 but wasn’t quite in the same shape as four years earlier and it was her Los Angeles Olympics conqueror, Maricica Puica, who sprinted past on the last lap, although she herself was run down by world indoor champion Tatyana Samolenko.

Samolenko went on to win the 1988 Olympics and defended her title in Tokyo in 1991 under her married name Dorovskikh by a narrow margin from team-mate Yelena Romanova. Susan Sirma won the first world medal by an African woman in any discipline.

Yvonne Murray, who had passed Sly on the last lap in Rome to finish seventh to her teammate’s eighth, was more confident in Japan as European champion and sprinted into the lead 550m out but paid for her bold move by fading to 10th.

In Stuttgart in 1993, Murray, by then world indoor champion, tried to lead again but faded away in the final kilometre as the Chinese came to the fore. Qu Yunxia ran a 60.72 lap from the 1400m mark, to which only her team-mates could respond, and completed her last lap in a remarkable 59.72 with only Zhang Linli and Zhang Lirong close. Qu went on to set a still-standing world 1500m record shortly after the Games.

Sonia O’Sullivan led the rest home well clear of an inspired Alison Wyeth, who was fifth in her greatest race. A teenage Paula Radcliffe acquitted herself well in her first senior championships in seventh ahead of Murray’s disappointing ninth.

The Chinese were absent in Gothenburg when the distance was changed to 5000m. World junior 3000m champion Gabriela Szabo started quickly with a 63-second first lap and led for the first two kilometres before Radcliffe took over and led into the final kilometre before 10,000m champion Fernanda Ribeiro pushed on but was powerless to respond when O’Sullivan blasted a 28.8 last 200m. Radcliffe finished fifth behind former junior rival Szabo.

O’Sullivan struggled in the 28C heat in Athens in 1997 and didn’t even make the final. Radcliffe was doing little of note at the front as she maintained a fairly modest pace and Szabo won easily with a 29.5 last 200m. Ribeiro finished third and Radcliffe fourth.

Zahra Ouaziz, who had been second in 1995, made a bold attempt to win in Seville in 1999 but couldn’t shake off Szabo, who again ran a sub-30 last 200m to win in a championship record 14:41.82 with the Moroccan gaining her second silver.

There was controversy in Edmonton in 2001 when world indoor 3000m champion Olga Yegorova failed a test for EPO just before the championships but was allowed to run as it was a urine sample and a blood test was needed. Szabo threatened not to run in protest and British runners including Paula Radcliffe held placards saying “EPO cheats out”.

Szabo did compete but, having won the 1500m and in her fifth race of the championships, was a tired eighth. China’s former world record-holder Dong Yanmei made a bold move in the final kilometre but eventually faded to fourth as Yegorova won easily with a 29.04 last 200m, her win being greeted with a chorus of boos.

Yegorova failed to even make the final in Paris in 2003 and Szabo, O’Sullivan and Ouaziz didn’t make the top 10. The surprise winner was 17-year-old Tirunesh Dibaba, who sprinted majestically on the last lap to win by half a second from Marta Dominguez, who gained her second silver medal.

In Helsinki in 2005, Dibaba first won the 10,000m and her stunning 58.2 last circuit proved too much for Olympic champion Meseret Defar as she set a championship record 14:38.59. The winner’s sister, Ejegayehu, won her second bronze of the championships as Ethiopia took the first four places.

In Osaka in 2007, Dibaba withdrew after winning the 10,000m and, without her rival, Defar stepped up to gold, with a 58.63-second last 400m and 28.18-second last 200m. Britain’s Jo Pavey, who had been 11th in Edmonton and 15th in Helsinki, improved to ninth in Japan, having been a close fourth in the 10,000m.

Vivian Cheruiyot, who had been a strong second in 2007, was fitter and stronger in Berlin in 2009 and produced a 58.62-second last 400m to lead home a Kenyan one-two. Defar wasn’t at her best due to respiratory problems but still completed her medal set in third.

Cheruiyot won the 10,000m in Daegu in 2011 and this time won gold with a 58.66-second last lap. This was four hundredths slower than in Germany and the similarities didn’t end there: Sylvia Kibet, Defar and fourth-placed Sentayehu Ejigu repeated their positions from two years earlier – as did eighth-placer Genzebe Dibaba, whose best years were still four years ahead as she demolished records in 2015.

In Moscow in 2013, Defar was already the record-holder of most 5000m medals with four, and in Russia, she made it five courtesy of a 59-second last lap and 2:41 final kilometre as she regained her gold medal. Disappointingly, the 10,000m champion, Dibaba, wasn’t selected to run the shorter event.

3000m

Year | Winner | Time | GB position and mark
1980 Birgit Friedmann (FRG) 8:48.05 Wendy Smith DNF
1983 Mary Decker (USA) 8:34.62 5 Wendy Sly 8:37.06
1987 Tatyana Samolenko (URS) 8:38.73 7 Yvonne Murray 8:43.94
1991 Tatyana Dorovskikh (URS) 8:35.82 10 Yvonne Murray 8:44.52
1993 Qu Yunxia (CHN) 8:28.71 5 Alison Wyeth 8:38.42

5000m

Year | Winner | Time | GB position and mark
1995 Sonia O’Sullivan (IRL) 14:46.47 5 Paula Radcliffe 14:57.02
1997 Gabriela Szabo (ROM) 14:57.68 4 Paula Radcliffe 15:01.74
1999 Gabriela Szabo (ROM) 14:41.82 No competitor
2001 Olga Yegorova (RUS) 15:03.39 11 Jo Pavey 15:28.41 (15:10.62 ht)
2003 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 14:51.72 No competitor
2005 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 14:38.59 15 Jo Pavey 15:14.37 (14:53.82 ht)
2007 Meseret Defar (ETH) 14:57.91 9 Jo Pavey 15:04.77
2009 Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) 14:57.97 No competitor
2011 Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) 14:55.36 12 Helen Clitheroe 15:21.22
2013 Meseret Defar (ETH) 14:50.19 No competitor

Points table (8 for 1st etc)
1. ETH 113
2. KEN 96
3. URS 39
4. ROU 33
5. CHN 33
6. GER 32
7. RUS 27
8. GBR 24
9. USA 23
10. ESP 17

» Find other event-by-event history features here