They just announced that the Jury of Appeals has added two more men to the Olympic 5,000 final, meaning we are going to get a 22-person monstrosity after all of the falls.
Shockingly, it was not Moh Ahmed or Abdihamid Nur who were advanced, both of whom fell, but Australia's Stewart McSweyn and France's Yann Schrub.
Schrub was contacted by Nur while falling and had his momentum thrown off. He only finished 11th in the heat. Maybe he qualifies without the contact. Hard to say.
McSweyn already looked cooked when he got caught up in the big fall in heat 1. Yes, his momentum was robbed and it totally threw him off. But he was also 13th at the time and didn't look like he had any chance of advancing anyway. Seems ridiculous to advance him.
As for Ahmed, his agent Dan Lilot told me that his understanding was that the officials determined Ahmed clipped an athlete in front of him and fell as a result, which is not grounds for advancement. No word from Nur's camp but my guess is similar reasoning there.