World Athletics Championships 1997/800 m men

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	53 athletes from 38 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 4th (preliminary) August 5th (quarter-finals) August 6th (semi-finals) August 8th (final)
Medalist Valentina Tichomirowa ( DEN )   Norberto Téllez ( CUB )   Rich Kenah ( USA )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The men's 800-meter run at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held from August 4 to 8, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

The Danish defending champion Wilson Kipketer won his second of three world titles . In second place came the Cuban Norberto Téllez , who won the Olympic bronze in his country's 4 x 400 meter relay in 1992 and gold in the Pan American Games in 1995 . In addition, Téllez was the winner of the 1995 Pan American Games over 400 meters . Bronze went to the American Rich Kenah .

Existing records

World record	1: 41.73 min	Sebastian Coe	Florence , Italy	June 10, 1981
		Wilson Kipketer	Stockholm , Sweden	July 7, 1997
World championship record	1: 43.06 min	Billy Konchellah	World Cup 1987 in Rome , Italy	September 1, 1987

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships. However, the world champion Wilson Kipketer , who started for Denmark , was only 32 hundredths of a second above the existing record in the final.

The Lebanese Ali Khazaal set a new national record in the second run with 1: 50.66 minutes.

Preliminary round

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

Forward 1

August 4, 1997, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Wilson Kipketer	Denmark	1: 46.34
2	Hezekiél Sepeng	South Africa	1: 46.42
3	Einars tupuritis	Latvia	1: 46.96
4th	Øivind Ødegard gate	Norway	1: 47.33
5	Jean-Marc Destine	Haiti	1: 47.76
6th	Joseph Rakotoarimanana	Madagascar	1: 47.86
7th	Mark Sesay	Great Britain	1: 49.00
8th	Cherif Baba Aidara	Mauritania	1: 56.85

Forward 2

August 4, 1997, 10:10 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Norberto Téllez	Cuba	1: 46.44
2	Panayiótis Stroubákos	Greece	1: 46.49
3	Andrea Longo	Italy	1: 46.79
4th	Mario Vernon-Watson	Jamaica	1: 46.96
5	Savieri Ngidhi	Zimbabwe	1: 46.97
6th	Ivan Komar	Belarus	1: 47.53
7th	Ali Khazaal	Lebanon	1: 50.66 NO
8th	Vanco Stojanov	Macedonia	1: 52.65

Forward 3

August 4, 1997, 10:20 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Marko Koers	Netherlands	1: 47.17
2	Rich Kenah	United States	1: 47.25
3	André Bucher	Switzerland	1: 47.44
4th	José Luíz Barbosa	Brazil	1: 47.53
5	Michael Wildner	Austria	1: 47.77
6th	Sergey Kozhevnikov	Russia	1: 48.11
7th	Mohamed Saleh Hadj Haidara	Bahrain	1: 53.56
DNF	Giuseppe D'Urso	Italy

Forward 4

August 4, 1997, 10:30 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Patrick Konchellah	Kenya	1: 47.15
2	David Matthews	Ireland	1: 47.33
3	Marius van Heerden	South Africa	1: 47.56
4th	Nathan Kahan	Belgium	1: 47.62
5	Viktors Lacis	Latvia	1: 48.65
6th	Liam Byrne	Gibraltar	2: 00.18
DNF	Mahjoub Haïda	Morocco
DNS	Julius Achon	Uganda

Forward 5

August 4, 1997, 10:40 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Vebjørn Rodal	Norway	1: 47.58
2	Arthémon Hatungimana	Burundi	1: 47.73
3	Andrew Hart	Great Britain	1: 47.98
4th	Hendrick Mokganyetsi	South Africa	1: 48.10
5	Pavel Soukup	Czech Republic	1: 48.16
6th	Mark Tonks	New Zealand	1: 48.85
7th	Yaya Terap Adoum	Chad	1: 54.01
8th	Manlio Molinari	San Marino	1: 55.89

Forward 6

August 4, 1997, 10:50 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Patrick Ndururi	Kenya	1: 49.51
2	Lukáš Vydra	Czech Republic	1: 50.08
3	Adem Hecini	Algeria	1: 55.25
4th	Brandon Rock	United States	1: 58.05
5	Cuthbert Modeste	St. Lucia	2: 01.24
DNF	Paul Walker	Great Britain
DNS	Graham Hood	Canada
	Mahdi Moullai	Iran

Forward 7

August 4, 1997, 11:08 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Mark Everett	United States	1: 47.10
2	Benson Koech	Kenya	1: 47.15
3	Benyounés Lahlou	Morocco	1: 47.33
4th	Mohamed Yagoub Babiker	Sudan	1: 47.34
5	Kennedy Osei	Ghana	1: 47.45
6th	José Manuel Cerezo	Spain	1: 47.68
7th	Tim Rogge	Belgium	1: 48.38
8th	Alex Morgan	Jamaica	1: 50.83

Quarter finals

In each of the four quarter-finals, the first three athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semifinals.

By far the fastest quarter-final race was the second. All runners who reached the semi-finals were recruited from this second run.

Quarter-finals 1

August 5, 1997, 6:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Marko Koers	Netherlands	1: 46.52
2	Patrick Ndururi	Kenya	1: 46.56
3	Benyounés Lahlou	Morocco	1: 46.63
4th	Savieri Ngidhi	Zimbabwe	1: 46.92
5	Lukáš Vydra	Czech Republic	1: 47.56
6th	Nathan Kahan	Belgium	1: 48.66
7th	Mario Vernon-Watson	Jamaica	1: 49.52
8th	Ivan Komar	Belarus	1: 50.17

Quarter-finals 2

August 5, 1997, 6:08 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Norberto Téllez	Cuba	1: 44.82
2	Hezekiél Sepeng	South Africa	1: 44.91
3	Mark Everett	United States	1: 44.95
4th	Adem Hecini	Algeria	1: 45.19
5	André Bucher	Switzerland	1: 45.33
6th	Øivind Ødegard gate	Norway	1: 45.42
7th	Mohamed Yagoub Babiker	Sudan	1: 45.73
8th	David Matthews	Ireland	1: 46.66

José Luíz Barbosa, vice world champion in 1991 and third in the 1987 World Cup , was eliminated in the quarter-finals as seventh of his race

Quarter-finals 3

August 5, 1997, 6:16 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Vebjørn Rodal	Norway	1: 46.43
2	Patrick Konchellah	Kenya	1: 46.43
3	Rich Kenah	United States	1: 46.48
4th	Arthémon Hatungimana	Burundi	1: 46.64
5	Einars tupuritis	Latvia	1: 46.97
6th	Marius van Heerden	South Africa	1: 47.20
7th	José Luíz Barbosa	Brazil	1: 47.30
8th	Andrew Hart	Great Britain	1: 48.03

Quarter-finals 4

• 

  Hendrick Mokganyetsi missed the semifinals by one place

August 5, 1997, 6:24 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Wilson Kipketer	Denmark	1: 45.54
2	Panayiótis Stroubákos	Greece	1: 45.94
3	Kennedy Osei	Ghana	1: 46.00
4th	Hendrick Mokganyetsi	South Africa	1: 46.56
5	Andrea Longo	Italy	1: 46.60
6th	Brandon Rock	United States	1: 47.13
7th	José Manuel Cerezo	Spain	1: 48.90
DNS	Benson Koech	Kenya

Semifinals

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

Semi-final run 1

August 6, 1997, 7:15 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Patrick Konchellah	Kenya	1: 45.07
2	Norberto Téllez	Cuba	1: 45.37
3	Vebjørn Rodal	Norway	1: 45.41
4th	Mark Everett	United States	1: 45.94
5	Adem Hecini	Algeria	1: 46.02
6th	Mohamed Yagoub Babiker	Sudan	1: 46.09
7th	Benyounés Lahlou	Morocco	1: 46.42
8th	Panayiótis Stroubákos	Greece	1: 46.81

Semi-final run 2

August 6, 1997, 7:21 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Wilson Kipketer	Denmark	1: 46.14
2	Rich Kenah	United States	1: 46.37
3	Patrick Ndururi	Kenya	1: 46.60
4th	Marko Koers	Netherlands	1: 46.62
5	Kennedy Osei	Ghana	1: 46.78
6th	André Bucher	Switzerland	1: 46.88
7th	Hezekiél Sepeng	South Africa	1: 47.00
8th	Øivind Ødegard gate	Norway	1: 47.83

final

Wilson Kipketer - as defending champion for his second of three World Cup titles

August 8, 1997, 7:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Wilson Kipketer	Denmark	1: 43.38
2	Norberto Téllez	Cuba	1: 44.00
3	Rich Kenah	United States	1: 44.25
4th	Patrick Konchellah	Kenya	1: 44.26
5	Vebjørn Rodal	Norway	1: 44.53
6th	Marko Koers	Netherlands	1: 44.85
7th	Patrick Ndururi	Kenya	1: 45.24
8th	Mark Everett	United States	1: 49.02

• 

  Vebjørn Rodal, vice European champion in 1994 , third in the 1995 World Cup and Olympic champion in 1996 , came in fifth here

• 

  Sixth placed Marko Koers

Video

• 1997 World Champ 800m , video posted on youtube.com July 8, 2007, accessed June 13, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 15, 2020
• Men 800m Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed June 15, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men 800 m, Athens 1997, p. 113 (PDF 10.3 MB), English, accessed on June 15, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 800 m men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 15, 2020