1960 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	56 athletes from 49 countries
Competition location	Stadio Olimpico
Competition phase	August 31, 1960 (preliminary / quarter finals) September 1, 1960 (semi-finals) September 2, 1960 (final)
Medalist Peter Snell ( NZL )   Roger Moens ( BEL )   George Kerr ( BWI )

The men's 800-meter run at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was held from August 31 to September 2, 1960 at the Stadio Olimpico . 56 athletes took part. For the first time at the Olympic Games, the first 100 meters were run in their own lanes.

Olympic champion was the New Zealander Peter Snell . He won ahead of the Belgian Roger Moens and George Kerr , who started for the West Indian Federation.

Three runners started for the German team. Jörg Balke reached the semi-finals, but was eliminated there as fourth of his run. Manfred Matuschewski and Paul Schmidt qualified for the final. There Schmidt was fourth and Matuschewski sixth. The only Swiss, Christian Wägli , also reached the final and came in fifth. Austria was represented by Rudolf Klaban, who made it to the quarter-finals, where he was eliminated in fourth of his run. Egon Oehri took part for Liechtenstein, but was eliminated in the run-up.

Existing records

World record	Roger Moens ( Belgium )	1: 45.7 min	Oslo	3rd August 1955
Olympic record	Tom Courtney ( United States )	1: 47.7 min	Melbourne	November 26, 1956

Conducting the competition

The runners started the heats on August 31st. A total of nine runs were completed. In each preliminary run, the three best starters could qualify for the quarter-finals on the same day. In the quarter-finals, too, the three best runners qualified for the next round, the semi-finals. The semi-finals were held on September 1st and the three best runners each qualified, this time for the final on September 2nd.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

August 31, 11 a.m .: Preliminaries
August 31, 4.30 p.m .: Quarter-finals
September 1, 4.40 p.m .: Semi-finals
September 2, 4.45 p.m .: Final

Prelims

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Donal Smith	New Zealand	1: 51.7 min	1: 51.86 min
2	Valery Bulishev	Soviet Union	1: 51.7 min	1: 51.83 min
3	Zbigniew Makomaski	Poland	1: 52.5 min	1: 52.70 min
4th	Brian Hewson	United Kingdom	1: 54.6 min	1: 54.73 min
5	Yair Pantilat	Israel	1: 54.7 min	1: 54.86 min
6th	George Johnson	Liberia	1: 55.9 min	1: 56.04 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Tom Farrell	United Kingdom	1: 48.9 min	1: 49.05 min
2	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 48.9 min	1: 49.08 min
3	Jos Lambrechts	Belgium	1: 49.1 min	1: 49.27 min
4th	Pierre-Yvon Lenoir	France	1: 49.3 min	1: 49.41 min
5	Jaromir Šlégr	Czechoslovakia	1: 50.1 min	1: 50.23 min
6th	Moussa Said	Ethiopia	1: 50.3 min	1: 50.49 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 48.1 min	1: 48.22 min
2	Christian Wägli	Switzerland	1: 48.8 min	1: 48.88 min
3	Ernie Cunliffe	United States	1: 48.8 min	1: 48.95 min
4th	István Rózsavölgyi	Hungary	1: 49.4 min	1: 49.51 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Tony Blue	Australia	1: 50.7 min	1: 50.82 min
2	Ergas Leps	Canada	1: 50.8 min	1: 50.93 min
3	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 51.0 min	1: 51.17 min
4th	Vasily Savinkov	Soviet Union	1: 51.4 min	1: 51.49 min
5	Konstantinos Moragiemos	Greece	1: 54.3 min	1: 54.60 min
6th	Ahmed Lazreg	Morocco	1: 55.7 min	1: 55.91 min

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Abram Kryvosheev	Soviet Union	1: 53.4 min	1: 53.49 min
2	Jörg Balke	Germany	1: 53.6 min	1: 53.72 min
3	John Wenk	United Kingdom	1: 54.1 min	1: 54.27 min
4th	Norbert Hauptert	Luxembourg	1: 54.7 min	1: 54.83 min
5	Frederick Owusu	Ghana	1: 55.2 min	1: 55.41 min
6th	Egon Oehri	Liechtenstein	2: 00.3 min	2: 00.49 min

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 50.6 min	1: 50.73 min
2	Per Knuts	Sweden	1: 51.2 min	1: 51.36 min
3	Lajos Kovács	Hungary	1: 51.3 min	1: 51.45 min
4th	Stefan Lewandowski	Poland	1: 51.6 min	1: 51.75 min
5	Svavar Markússon	Iceland	1: 52.7 min	1: 52.88 min
6th	Abdeslem Dargouth	Tunisia	1: 54.7 min	1: 54.87 min

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	George Kerr	West Indian Federation	1: 50.9 min	1: 51.11 min
2	Terry Sullivan	Southern Rhodesia	1: 51.1 min	1: 51.26 min
3	Péter Parsch	Hungary	1: 51.2 min	1: 51.34 min
4th	Borut Ingolič	Yugoslavia	1: 51.4 min	1: 51.51 min
5	Pertti Ålander	Finland	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.20 min
6th	Zbigniew Orywał	Poland	1: 55.8 min	1: 55.89 min

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Paul Schmidt	Germany	1: 50.8 min	1: 50.97 min
2	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1: 50.8 min	1: 50.96 min
3	Ron Delany	Ireland	1: 51.0 min	1: 51.19 min
4th	Joe Mullins	Canada	1: 51.3 min	1: 51.46 min
5	Gianfranco Baraldi	Italy	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.15 min
6th	Julio Gomez	Spain	1: 53.7 min	1: 53.90 min
7th	Somsak Thonf Ar-Ram	Thailand	1: 57.1 min	1: 57.24 min

Forward 9

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Tom Murphy	United States	1: 52.1 min	1: 52.30 min
2	Ralph Gomes	British Guiana	1: 52.9 min	1: 53.06 min
3	Ekrem Koçak	Turkey	1: 59.0 min	1: 59.12 min
4th	Sig Ohlemann	Canada	2: 07.4 min

Quarter finals

The Belgian Jos Lambrechts and the Hungarian Péter Parsch did not make the quarter-finals.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Tom Murphy	United States	1: 48.0 min	1: 48.12 min
2	Christian Wägli	Switzerland	1: 48.0 min	1: 48.15 min
3	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 48.1 min	1: 48.24 min
4th	Donal Smith	New Zealand	1: 48.4 min	1: 48.52 min
5	Terry Sullivan	Southern Rhodesia	1: 49.9 min	1: 50.01 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Paul Schmidt	Germany	1: 51.2 min	1: 51.38 min
2	Abram Kryvosheev	Soviet Union	1: 51.2 min	1: 51.40 min
3	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 51.3 min	1: 51.53 min
4th	Zbigniew Makomaski	Poland	1: 51.6 min	1: 51.72 min
5	Ralph Gomes	British Guiana	1: 52.3 min	1: 52.47 min
6th	Lajos Kovács	Hungary	1: 52.4 min	1: 52.55 min
7th	Per Knuts	Sweden	1: 52.8 min	1: 52.91 min

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	George Kerr	West Indian Federation	1: 49.4 min	1: 49.58 min
2	Ernie Cunliffe	United States	1: 49.7 min	1: 49.83 min
3	Tony Blue	Australia	1: 49.9 min	1: 50.05 min
4th	John Wenk	United Kingdom	1: 50.0 min	1: 50.13 min
5	Valery Bulishev	Soviet Union	1: 50.6 min	1: 50.74 min
6th	Ron Delany	Ireland	1: 51.1 min	1: 51.42 min

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 48.5 min	1: 48.69 min
2	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 48.6 min	1: 48.84 min
3	Jörg Balke	Germany	1: 48.8 min	1: 48.98 min
4th	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1: 50.2 min	1: 50.32 min
5	Tom Farrell	United Kingdom	1: 50.7 min	1: 50.84 min
6th	Ergas Leps	Canada	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.13 min
7th	Ekrem Koçak	Turkey	1: 52.5 min	1: 52.66 min

Semifinals

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	George Kerr	West Indian Federation	1: 47.1 min	1: 47.26 min	OR
2	Christian Wägli	Switzerland	1: 47.3 min	1: 47.40 min
3	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 47.4 min	1: 47.54 min
4th	Jörg Balke	Germany	1: 47.5 min	1: 47.63 min
5	Tony Blue	Australia	1: 47.8 min	1: 47.97 min
6th	Tom Murphy	United States	1: 48.2 min	1: 48.29 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 47.2 min	1: 47.34 min
2	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 47.4 min	1: 47.49 min
3	Paul Schmidt	Germany	1: 47.8 min	1: 47.95 min
4th	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 48.0 min	1: 48.20 min
5	Abram Kryvosheev	Soviet Union	1: 48.1 min	1: 48.25 min
6th	Ernie Cunliffe	United States	1: 50.8 min	1: 50.92 min

final

The favorite was the world record holder Roger Moens. The greatest challenger was considered to be the Jamaican George Kerr, who competed for the West Indian Federation.
The pace in the final race was initially set by Swiss Christian Wägli, who was three meters ahead after 400 meters. Moens lay behind him, then Peter Snell. On the home straight, Moens and Kerr fought a duel for the lead. When Moens looked around and saw that Kerr could no longer attack, he slowed down. The hitherto unknown New Zealander Snell passed the surprised Belgian. Silver remained for Moens and bronze for Kerr.
Snell ran for the first New Zealand Olympic victory over 800 meters.
Moens and Kerr won the first medals for their countries in this discipline.
For the first time since 1896, no US runner could qualify for the finals in the 800-meter Olympic run.

space	Surname	nation	Time (hand stopped)	Time (electronically stopped)	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 46.3 min	1: 46.48 min	OR
2	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 46.5 min	1: 46.55 min
3	George Kerr	West Indian Federation	1: 47.1 min	1: 47.25 min
4th	Paul Schmidt	Germany	1: 47.6 min	1: 47.82 min
5	Christian Wägli	Switzerland	1: 48.1 min	1: 48.19 min
6th	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.21 min

Web links

• SportsReference 800 m
• Official Report, pages 80-83

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official report, page 63
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)