European Athletics Championships 1978/800 m men

12th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's 800-meter run
city	Prague , Czechoslovakia today Czech Republic
Stadion	Evžena Rošického Stadium
Attendees	24 athletes from 15 countries
Competition phase	August 29th (preliminary) August 30th (semi-finals) August 31st (final)
Medalist
gold	Olaf Beyer ( GDR )
silver	Steve Ovett ( GBR )
bronze	Sebastian Coe ( GBR )

The stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague
in 2009

The 800-meter race of the men at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was from 29 to 31 August 1978 in the stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague held.

In this competition, two medals, silver and bronze, went to the athletes from Great Britain. The GDR runner Olaf Beyer was the surprising European champion . He won before the European Championship runner-up in 1974 Steve Ovett , who won the 1500 meter race three days later . Sebastian Coe came in third .

Records

Existing records

World record	1: 43.4 min	Alberto Juantorena	Sofia , Bulgaria	August 21, 1977
European record	1: 43.7 min	Marcello Fiasconaro	Milan , Italy	June 27, 1973
EM record	1: 44.07 min	Luciano Sušanj	EM Rome , Italy	4th September 1974

Record improvement

European champion Olaf Beyer improved the existing championship record in the final on August 31 by 23 hundredths of a second to 1: 43.84 min.  

Preliminary round

August 29, 1978

The preliminary round was held in four runs. The first three athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - and the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semifinals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1: 47.80
2	Hans-Peter Ferner	BR Germany	1: 48.1
3	Markku Taskinen	Finland	1: 48.3
4th	Detlef Wagenknecht	GDR	1: 48.4
5	Vladimir Malosemlin	Soviet Union	1: 48.6
6th	Carlo Grippo	Italy	1: 48.6 SB

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Olaf Beyer	GDR	1: 47.72
2	Arno Körmeling	Netherlands	1: 48.1
3	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	1: 48.5
4th	Justin Gloden	Luxembourg	1: 49.0 SB
5	Peter Hoffmann	Great Britain	1: 49.3 PB

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Andreas Busse	GDR	1: 49.08
2	José Marajo	France	1: 49.4
3	Anatoly Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1: 49.5
4th	Milovan Savic	Yugoslavia	1: 50.0
5	Milan Timko	Czechoslovakia	1: 50.5 PB
6th	Panagiotis Pallikaris	Greece	1: 51.6

Detlef Wagenknecht finished seventh in his semi-final run and was eliminated

Arno Körmeling finished eighth in the first semifinals

Roger Milhaus seventh place in the second semifinals was not enough for the final

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1: 46.82
2	Roger Milhau	France	1: 47.07 PB
3	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	1: 47.13 PB
4th	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1: 47.18
5	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1: 47.19
6th	Sermet Timurlenk	Turkey	1: 47.23 SB
7th	Jón Didriksson	Iceland	1: 50.4 PB

Semifinals

August 30, 1978, 6:00 p.m.

In each of the two semi-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1: 47.44
2	Andreas Busse	GDR	1: 47.6
3	José Marajo	France	1: 47.7 SB
4th	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1: 47.8
5	Markku Taskinen	Finland	1: 47.9
6th	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	1: 48.2
7th	Detlef Wagenknecht	GDR	1: 48.5
8th	Arno Körmeling	Netherlands	1: 49.2

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1: 46.51
2	Olaf Beyer	GDR	1: 46.74
3	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1: 46.91 SB
4th	Anatoly Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1: 47.2
5	Hans-Peter Ferner	BR Germany	1: 47.4 SB
6th	Sermet Timurlenk	Turkey	1: 47.9
7th	Roger Milhau	France	1: 48.9
8th	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	1: 49.3

final

Olaf Beyer was surprisingly European champion in a high-class race

August 31, 1978

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Olaf Beyer	GDR	1: 43.84 CR / DR
2	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1: 44.09 PB
3	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1: 44.76
4th	Anatoly Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1: 45.79 PB
5	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1: 46.24
6th	Andreas Busse	GDR	1: 47.1
7th	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1: 47.4
8th	José Marajo	France	1: 53.4

• 

  Steve Ovett, winner of the 1500 meters on the final day , became vice European champion like in 1974 - he was one of the best middle distance athletes of his time, later, among other things, Olympic champion in 1980 and world record holder

• 

  Bronze medalist Sebastian Coe (here in 2015) - he stood at the beginning of a great sports career Olympic gold medals, including two over 1500 meters 1980 / 1984 , the 800 meters - EM -Titel 1986 and world records, today president of the IAAF

• 

  Andreas Busse came in sixth place

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Prague 1978 from european-athletics.org, accessed July 27, 2019
• Men 800m European Championship 1978 Prague on todor66.com, accessed July 27, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1978 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed July 27, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men 800m European Championship 1978 Praha, p. 428 (PDF, 13.363 kB), Spanish / English at european-athletics.org, accessed on July 27, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1978, 800 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on July 27, 2019
• 12th European Athletics Championships 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia from ifosta.de, accessed on July 27, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 800m men , accessed July 27, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 800 m Men , Spanish / English, p. 11 (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on July 27, 2019