Ultimate preview: men's 5000m

World lead: 12:45.70 Birhanu Balew (BRN) Brussels, 5 Sep2026 world list | world rankings

World record: 12:35.36 Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) Monaco, 14 Aug 2020world all-time list | world record progression

The men’s 5000m brings together Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker in a clash of global champions.

Norway’s Ingebrigtsen is the Olympic champion who added 5000m gold to his 1500m title won in 2021, while USA’s Hocker is the world champion as he succeeded Ingebrigtsen in Tokyo, winning the 2025 title after his rival’s successive victories in 2022 and 2023 – the latter in Budapest.

Now they return to the Hungarian capital to race for the Ultimate crown, as part of a field featuring 10 of the 13 fastest men of the season so far.

And it will be an intriguing clash, as Ingebrigtsen continues his return after injury and Hocker contests the 5000m for the first time this year after focusing on the 1500m – an event both he and Ingebrigtsen are also entered for at the Ultimate Championship.

Ingebrigtsen won his fourth successive European 5000m title in Birmingham last month, in what was his first race of the year following achilles surgery. He followed that with three top-five finishes on the Diamond League circuit. Hocker has also contested three Diamond League 1500m races this year, winning in Zurich and finishing third in Silesia. He was seventh in the final in Brussels, three places behind Ingebrigtsen.

But the 5000m is an event in which they have met only once before – during the World Championships last year when Ingebrigtsen was 10th in a race won by Hocker.

And they will have plenty of strong competition.

Burundi’s Egide Ntakarutimana tops the entry list when it comes to season’s bests thanks to the national record of 12:46.73 he set when finishing second in the Diamond League Final last weekend. The next five men in that race – Cornelius Kemboi, Biniam Mehary, Graham Blanks, Nico Young and Jacob Krop – are also among the entries, along with Grant Fisher, USA’s Olympic 5000m and 10,000m bronze medallist who won the Paris Diamond League 5000m.

Ethiopia’s 2022 world U20 champion Addisu Yihune, who has won Diamond League races in Xiamen and Oslo this season, tops the world rankings ahead of Zurich Diamond League 3000m winner Parker Wolfe and they will both want to maintain that momentum when they take to the track in Budapest.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Title key: 🏅 Olympic champion, 🌍 world champion, 💎 Diamond League champion