One lap later, Britain's Julian Goater suddenly accelerated, but over 200 metres after the start of his surge, Dmitriyev caught him.

During the fourth kilometre, Dmitriyev, Ethiopia's Wodajo Bulti, and Switzerland's Markus Ryffel took turns leading the race.

With two laps left, twelve men were still in the lead group, with Goater and Italy's Salvatore Antibo having dropped from Dmitriyev's pace.

On the second-last back straight, the Soviet Union's Valeriy Abramov lost contact with the lead group.

Immediately Ryffel, Portugal's Antonio Leitao, and Austria's Dietmar Millonig dropped from Dmitriyev's pace.

Coghlan was running about six or seven metres behind this Soviet runner, with Wessinghage, Bulti, Finland's Martti Vainio, the United States' Doug Padilla, East Germany's Werner Schildhauer, and Kenya's Paul Kipkoech still in the lead group.

This astonishing event - Wessinghage was a world-class runner at both 1,500 and 5,000 metres - probably inspired Vainio to start his final kick, and to pass Bulti.

On the final home straight, without even sprinting as fast as he could, Coghlan moved into a wide lead, crossing the finish line in 13:28.53.