1960 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	39 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Stadio Olimpico
Competition phase	September 3, 1960 (preliminary) September 6, 1960 (final)
Medalist Herb Elliott ( AUS )   Michel Jazy ( FRA )   István Rózsavölgyi ( HUN )

The men's 1500 meter race at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was held on September 3 and 6, 1960 at the Stadio Olimpico . 39 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Australian Herb Elliott , who set a new world record. He won in front of the French Michel Jazy and the Hungarian István Rózsavölgyi .

While Swiss athletes did not take part, three Germans, an Austrian and a Liechtensteiner started. Arthur Hannemann, Siegfried Valentin and Adolf Schwarte from Germany as well as Rudolf Klaban from Austria and Egon Oehri from Liechtenstein failed in their preliminary stages.

Existing records

World record	3: 36.0 min	Herb Elliott ( Australia )	Gothenburg , Sweden	August 28, 1958
Olympic record	3: 41.2 min	Ron Delany ( Ireland )	Melbourne , Australia	1st December 1956

Conducting the competition

The runners started three heats on September 3rd. Each of the three best runners qualified for the finals on September 6th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

September 3, 5:15 p.m .: preliminary runs

September 6, 4.15 p.m .: Final

Prelims

Siegfried Valentin, who failed in the run-up, signs autographs.

Seventh place in the final: Frenchman Michel Bernard

Dan Waern (SWE) came fourth in the final

Date: September 3, 1960, from 5.15 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Herb Elliott	Australia	3: 41.4 min	3: 41.50 min
2	István Rózsavölgyi	Hungary	3: 42.0 min	3: 42.15 min
3	Dyrol Burleson	United States	3: 42.2 min	3: 42.40 min
4th	Terry Sullivan	Southern Rhodesia	3: 42.8 min	3: 42.96 min
5	Yevgeny Momotkov	Soviet Union	3: 43.6 min	3: 43.80 min
6th	Olavi saloons	Finland	3: 46.4 min	3: 46.57 min
7th	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	3: 47.1 min	3: 47.24 min
8th	Arthur Hannemann	Germany	3: 47.4 min	3: 47.57 min
9	Laurie Reed	Great Britain	3: 47.9 min	3: 48.24 min
10	Joe Mullins	Canada	3: 53.1 min	3: 53.45 min
11	Tomás Barris	Spain	3: 57.3 min	3: 56.10 min
12	Mohamed Gouider	Tunisia	3: 58.4 min	3: 58.52 min
DNF	Zbigniew Orywał	Poland

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Michel Bernard	France	3: 42.2 min	3: 42.34 min
2	Jim Grelle	United States	3: 43.5 min	3: 43.65 min
3	Arne Hamarsland	Norway	3: 44.4 min	3: 44.63 min
4th	Brian Kent-Smith	Great Britain	3: 46.1 min	3: 46.21 min
5	Albie Thomas	Australia	3: 46.8 min	3: 46.95 min
6th	Siegfried Valentin	Germany	3: 46.9 min	3: 46.99 min
7th	Svavar Markússon	Iceland	3: 47.1 min	3: 47.20 min
8th	Alfredo Rizzo	Italy	3: 47.3 min	3: 47.56 min
9	Andrei Barabaș	Romania	3: 47.4 min	3: 47.71 min
10	Muharrem Dalkılıç	Turkey	3: 47.9 min	3: 48.18 min
11	Dhira Phiphobmongkol	Thailand	3: 57.3 min	3: 56.10 min
DNF	Egon Oehri	Liechtenstein
	Péter Parsch	Hungary

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Dan Waern	Sweden	3: 43.9 min	3: 44.18 min
2	Michel Jazy	France	3: 44.9 min	3: 45.03 min
3	Zoltan Vamoş	Romania	3: 44.9 min	3: 45.07 min
4th	Adolf Schwarte	Germany	3: 45.3 min	3: 45.46 min
5	Lajos Kovács	Hungary	3: 46.0 min	3: 46.20 min
6th	Mike Wiggs	Great Britain	3: 46.5 min	3: 46.61 min
7th	Merv Lincoln	Australia	3: 46.8 min	3: 47.18 min
8th	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	3: 48.4 min	3: 48.77 min
9	Pete Close	United States	3: 50.2 min	3: 50.69 min
10	Olavi Vuorisalo	Finland	3: 52.2 min	3: 52.68 min
11	Stefan Lewandowski	Poland	3: 59.3 min	3: 59.75 min
12	Yair Pantilat	Israel	3: 59.8 min	4:00, 14 min
13	Kassim Mukhtar	Iraq	4:00, 1 min	4: 00.33 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Herb Elliott	Australia	3: 35.6 min	WR
2	Michel Jazy	France	3: 38.4 min
3	István Rózsavölgyi	Hungary	3: 39.2 min
4th	Dan Waern	Sweden	3: 40.0 min
5	Zoltan Vamoş	Romania	3: 40.8 min
6th	Dyrol Burleson	United States	3: 40.9 min
7th	Michel Bernard	France	3: 41.5 min
8th	Jim Grelle	United States	3: 45.0 min
9	Arne Hamarsland	Norway	3: 45.0 min

Date: September 6, 1960, 4:15 p.m.

The favorite was the Australian Herb Elliott. Behind that there were some athletes who were given medal chances. These included the two French Michel Jazy and Michel Bernard, the Hungarian István Rózsavölgyi and also Dan Waern from Sweden.

The final was determined on the first two rounds by the French Bernard. The field was still close together. At about 900 meters Elliott tightened enormously and took the lead. The field was now spreading more and more, and there was quickly a clear gap between Elliott and the other runners. The Australian continued to pull through on the last lap, increasing his lead more and more. Elliott's trainer Percy Cerutty signaled to his protégé at the beginning of the last corner that he was on course for a world record . Elliott was not deterred by anything and ran to Olympic gold in a world record time. Almost three seconds behind him, Jazy crossed the finish line, followed by Rózsavölgyi.

István Rózsavölgyi won the first Hungarian medal in this discipline.

The race and the intermediate results:

200 m: 28.3 s Bernard, Waern, Hamarsland, Jazy, Elliott - 400 m: 58.2 s Bernard, Waern, Hamarsland, Vamoş, Rózsavölgyi, Elliott - 600 m: 1: 27.4 min Bernard, Waern, Vamoş , Elliott, Jazy -

800 m: 1: 57.8 min Bernard, Waern, Vamoș, Elliott, Jazy - 1000 m: 2: 25.4 min Elliott, Rózsavölgyi, Jazy, Bernard - 1200 m: 2: 54.0 min Elliott, Rózsavölgyi (3 m), Jazy (5 m), Vamoș (8 m)

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 188–190

Videos

• 25 Olympic Series 1960, Herb Elliott, 1500m 2 30 min , published March 6, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 11, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed October 11, 2017
• Official report pp. 84–87, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 549 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 63f (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
3. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , pp. 84–87 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
4. ^ Official report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 87 (English) on library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)