These are the official results of the Men's 5,000 metres event at the 1982 European Championships in Athens, Greece, held at Olympic Stadium "Spiros Louis" on 8 and 11 September 1982.
The strongest pre-final favourite and the fresh world record holder at this distance, David Moorcroft, took the lead shortly after the start.
As the tightly bunched group of runners was approaching 3,200 metres, East Germany's Hansjörg Kunze, one of the pre-race favourites, was pushed, lost his rhythm for a moment, and accidentally ran a few steps on the field.
Around 3,800 metres, there was another shoving match, involving Italy's Alberto Cova and Austria's Dietmar Millonig.
Also Switzerland's Markus Ryffel dropped from the lead group before 4,600 metres, while Cova, McLeod and Kunze began to struggle.