World Athletics Championships 1987/1500 m men

2. World Athletics Championships
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	37 athletes from 23 countries
venue	Rome
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 3rd (preliminary) September 4th (semi-finals) September 6th (final)
Medalist Abdi Bile ( SOM )   José Luis González ( ESP )   Jim Spivey ( USA )

The Olympic Stadium in Rome

The men's 1500-meter race at the World Athletics Championships in 1987 was held from September 3 to 6, 1987 in the Olympic Stadium in the Italian capital, Rome .

Abdi Bile from Somalia became world champion . Silver went to the Spaniard José Luis González . The American Jim Spivey won the bronze medal.

Records

Existing records

World record	3: 29.46 min	Said Aouita	Berlin , FR Germany	23rd August 1985
World championship record	3: 35.77 min	Steve Cram	1983 World Cup in Helsinki , Finland	August 13, 1983

Record improvement

World champion Abdi Bile from Somalia improved the existing world championship record in the first semi-final on September 4th by a tenth of a second to 3: 35.67 minutes.

Preliminary round

4th September 1987

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

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 41.93
2	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 42.05
3	Peter Rono	Kenya	3: 42.26
4th	Steve Scott	United States	3: 42.43
5	Remy Geoffroy	France	3: 42.45
6th	Michael Hillardt	Australia	3: 42.79
7th	Peter Wirz	Switzerland	3: 43.00
8th	Ray Flynn	Ireland	3: 43.06
9	Andres Vera	Spain	3: 43.24
10	Dave Campbell	Canada	3: 43.80
11	Dieudonné Kwizéra	Burundi	3: 44.36
12	Manuel Balmaceda	Chile	3: 49.52
DNS	Ari Suhonen	Finland

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 38.05
2	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 38.10
3	Steve Crabb	Great Britain	3: 38.11
4th	Peter Bourke	Australia	3: 38.18
5	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 38.20
6th	Dieter Baumann	BR Germany	3: 38.31
7th	Mogens Guldberg	Denmark	3: 38.67
8th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 38.71
9	Teofilo Benito	Spain	3: 38.90
10	Zeki Ozturk	Turkey	3: 40.38
11	Chuck Aragon	United States	3: 40.82
12	Getahun Ayana	Ethiopia	3: 42.29
13	Mohamed Sami Abdullah	United Arab Emirates	3: 51.04

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 40.22
2	José Luis González	Spain	3: 40.28
3	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 40.32
4th	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 40.48
5	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	3: 40.63
6th	Leonid Masunov	Soviet Union	3: 40.68
7th	Mario Silva	Portugal	3: 40.99
8th	Adrian Passey	Great Britain	3: 41.44
9	Markus Hacksteiner	Switzerland	3: 42.04
10	Pat Scammell	Australia	3: 44.93
11	Gerald O'Reilly	Ireland	3: 45.77
12	Johnny Kroon	Sweden	3: 49.06
DNS	Moctar El	Mauritania

Semifinals

4th September 1987

In each of the two semi-finals, the first five athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the two fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Semi-final run 1

Dieter Baumann (here in 2017) failed in the semi-finals - he still had his successes, especially over 5000 meters , ahead of him

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 35.67 CR
2	José Luis González	Spain	3: 35.68
3	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 35.78
4th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 35.82
5	Steve Scott	United States	3: 35.91
6th	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 36.08
7th	Remy Geoffroy	France	3: 37.47
8th	Leonid Masunov	Soviet Union	3: 38.24
9	Peter Bourke	Australia	3: 38.42
10	Chuck Aragon	United States	3: 39.45
11	Zeki Ozturk	Turkey	3: 42.17
12	Dieter Baumann	BR Germany	3: 47.71

Semi-final run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 40.57
2	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 40.63
3	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 40.64
4th	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 40.69
5	Michael Hillardt	Australia	3: 40.75
6th	Mario Silva	Portugal	3: 41.12
7th	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 41.24
8th	Teofilo Benito	Spain	3: 41.89
9	Steve Crabb	Great Britain	3: 42.12
10	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	3: 43.73
11	Peter Rono	Kenya	3: 44.76
12	Mogens Guldberg	Denmark	3: 50.79

final

World Champion Abdi Bile (on the photo in 2019)

September 6, 1987

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 36.80
2	José Luis González	Spain	3: 38.03
3	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 38.82
4th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 39.36
5	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 39.81
6th	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 40.14
7th	Michael Hillardt	Australia	3: 40.23
8th	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 41.19
9	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 42.16
10	Remy Geoffroy	France	3: 43.03
11	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 44.54
12	Steve Scott	United States	3: 45.92

• 

  Omer Khalifa (left) finished fifth

• 

  Jens-Peter Herold (center) came in sixth

• 

  Steve Cram (here in 2008) reached number eight

• 

  Han Kulker (in the leading position in the photo) came in ninth place

Web links

• IAAF World Championships in Athletics, 2nd IAAF World Championships in Athletics , accessed March 21, 2020
• Men 1500m Athletics II World Championship Rome (ITA) 1987 at todor66.com, accessed March 21, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men 1500 m, Rome 1987 (PDF 10.3 MB, p. 118), English, accessed on March 21, 2020

Videos

• Abdi Bile Abdi Wins The 1,500M = Rome 1987 = on youtube.com (English), accessed on March 21, 2020
• 1987, Ray Flynn, 1500m Ht1, IAAF World Championships, Rome on youtube.com (English), accessed on March 21, 2020
• 1987, Marcus O'Sullivan, 1500m Ht2, IAAF World Championships, Rome on youtube.com (English), accessed March 21, 2020
• 1987, Gerry O'Reilly, 1500m H3, IAAF World Championships, Rome on youtube.com (English), accessed on March 21, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500 m men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on March 21, 2020