European Athletics Championships 1978/1500 m men

12th European Athletics Championships
discipline	1500 meter run of men
city	Prague , Czechoslovakia today Czech Republic
Stadion	Evžena Rošického Stadium
Attendees	34 athletes from 19 countries
Competition phase	September 1st (preliminary) September 3rd (final)
Medalist
gold	Steve Ovett ( GBR )
silver	Eamonn Coghlan ( IRL )
bronze	David Moorcroft ( GBR )

The stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague
in 2009

The 1,500-meter race of the men at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was on 1 and 3 September 1978 Stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague held.

With gold and bronze, British middle-distance athletes won two medals in this competition. European champion was Steve Ovett , who had finished second in the 800 meters three days earlier, as in 1974 . He won before the Irishman Eamonn Coghlan . Bronze went to David Moorcroft .

Records

Existing records

World record	3: 32.2 min	Filbert Bayi	Christchurch , New Zealand	2nd July 1974
European record	3: 34.0 min	Jean Wadoux	Colombes , France	June 25, 1966
Championship record	3: 38.43 min	Francesco Arese	EM Helsinki , Finland	15th August 1971

Record improvement

European champion Steve Ovett improved the existing EM record in the final on September 3rd by 2.84 seconds to 3: 35.59 minutes.  

Preliminary round

September 1, 1978, 7:05 p.m.

The preliminary round was carried out in three runs. The first three athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - as well as the three fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semi-finals.

Forward 1

Klaas Lok (here in the leading position) did not reach the finish line in his lead

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	3: 39.98
2	David Moorcroft	Great Britain	3: 40.0
3	Olaf Beyer	GDR	3: 40.1
4th	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 40.1
5	José Marajo	France	3: 40.6
6th	Valery Abramov	Soviet Union	3: 40.9 SB
7th	Bernhard Vifian	Switzerland	3: 42.5 SB
8th	Robert Nemeth	Austria	3: 44.1 SB
9	Ari Paunonen	Finland	3: 45.0 SB
10	José Manuel Abascal	Spain	3: 47.6 SB
11	Marcel Pierrard	Luxembourg	3: 52.8 PB
DNF	Klaas Lok	Netherlands

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 42.94
2	Jürgen Straub	GDR	3: 43.1
3	Rolf Gysin	Switzerland	3: 43.2
4th	Marc Nevens	Belgium	3: 43.2 SB
5	Ray Flynn	Ireland	3: 44.1 SB
6th	Dietmar Millonig	Austria	3: 44.8 SB
7th	Vladimir Scheronov	Soviet Union	3: 45.1
8th	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	3: 46.7 SB
9	Philippe Dien	France	3: 47.4 SB
10	Bjorn Nilsson	Sweden	3: 47.9
11	Jón Didriksson	Iceland	3: 48.1 SB

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Antti Loikkanen	Finland	3: 49.66
2	John Robson	Great Britain	3: 40.0
3	Francis Gonzalez	France	3: 40.4
4th	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	3: 40.6 SB
5	Pierre Délèze	Switzerland	3: 40.7 SB
6th	Günther Ruth	GDR	3: 41.4
7th	Lars Ericsson	Sweden	3: 42.5
8th	Valery Toropov	Soviet Union	3: 45.1 SB
9	Sermet Timurlenk	Turkey	3: 45.8 SB
10	Fotios Kourtis	Greece	3: 45.9
DNF	Karl Fleschen	BR Germany

European champion Steve Ovett, three days earlier, like in 1974, vice European
champion over 800 meters - he was one of the best middle distance athletes of his time, later, among other things, Olympic champion in 1980 and world record holder

final

September 3, 1978, 6:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 35.59 CR
2	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	3: 36.70 SB
3	David Moorcroft	Great Britain	3: 36.75 SB
4th	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 37.19 SB
5	Antti Loikkanen	Finland	3: 37.54 SB
6th	José Marajo	France	3: 38.20 SB
7th	Jürgen Straub	GDR	3: 38.88 SB
8th	John Robson	Great Britain	3: 39.6 SB
9	Olaf Beyer	GDR	3: 39.7 SB
10	Francis Gonzalez	France	3: 40.1 SB
11	Rolf Gysin	Switzerland	3: 41.0 SB
12	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	3: 42.2

• 

  Vice European Champion Eamonn Coghlan - in 1983 he became the first world champion over 5000 meters

• 

  ThomasWessinghage, European Championship third from 1974 , reached fourth place - in 1982 he became European champion over 5000 meters

• 

  Jürgen Straub came in seventh place - in 1980 he won the Olympic silver medal

• 

  Olaf Beyer, European champion over 800 meters, finished ninth

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Prague 1978 from european-athletics.org, accessed July 28, 2019
• Men 1500m European Championship 1978 Prague on todor66.com, accessed July 28, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1978 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed July 28, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men 1500m European Championship 1978 Praha, p. 428 (PDF, 13.363 kB), Spanish / English at european-athletics.org, accessed on July 28, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1978, 1500 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on July 28, 2019
• 12th European Athletics Championships 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia from ifosta.de, accessed on July 28, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500m men , accessed July 28, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 1500 m Men , p. 12 (PDF, 271 kB), Spanish / English, accessed on July 28, 2019