1964 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	43 athletes from 34 countries
Competition location	Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	October 17, 1964 (preliminary) October 19, 1964 (semi-finals) October 21, 1964 (final)
Medalist Peter Snell ( NZL )   Josef Odložil ( TCH )   John Davies ( NZL )

The men's 1500-meter run at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo was held on October 17, 19 and 21, 1964 in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. 43 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the New Zealander Peter Snell . He won before the Czechoslovak Josef Odložil and John Davies , as well as winner Snell from New Zealand.

Three Germans, two Swiss, an Austrian and a Liechtensteiner started. The two Swiss Rolf Jelinek and Hansrüedi Knill, the Austrian Volker Tulzer and the Liechtenstein Hugo Walser were eliminated in the preliminary run. The German Siegfried Valentin also failed in the run-up. Wolf-Dieter Holtz and Jürgen May made it to the semi-finals and were eliminated there.

Existing records

World record	3: 35.6 min	Herb Elliott ( Australia )	Rome , Italy	September 6, 1960
Olympic record			Final of Rome , Italy

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of four heats on October 17th. The four best starters and the two fastest runners below qualified for the next round. From the semi-finals on October 19th, the four best participants and the fastest time afterwards reached the final on October 21st.

Time schedule

October 17th, 11.00 a.m .: Preliminaries

October 19, 11 a.m .: semi-finals

October 21, 1:20 p.m .: Final

In the following overviews, athletes who have qualified directly for the next round are highlighted in light blue, while those who have qualified over time are highlighted in light green.

Prelims

The German Jürgen May (No. 228 at the GDR championships in 1963) reached the semi-finals

The Belgian Eugène Allonsius also made it to the semi-finals, but was eliminated there

Eliminated in advance: Siegfried Valentin (EUA)

Date: October 17, 1964, from 11 a.m.

Weather conditions: clear, approx. 20 ° C, humidity approx. 67%

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Witold Baran	Poland	3: 45.3 min
2	John Davies	New Zealand	3: 45.5 min
3	Dyrol Burleson	United States	3: 45.6 min
4th	Ergas Leps	Canada	3: 46.4 min
5	Bill McKim	Great Britain	3: 46.8 min
6th	Hansrüedi Knill	Switzerland	3: 47.2 min
7th	Denos Adjima Beche	Ivory Coast	3: 53.5 min
8th	Basil Clifford	Ireland	3: 54.9 min
9	Neville Myton	Jamaica	3: 57.0 min
10	Ramasamy Subramaniam	Malaysia	3: 59.4 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Michel Bernard	France	3: 44.1 min
2	Jürgen May	Germany	3: 44.2 min
3	John Whetton	Great Britain	3: 44.2 min
4th	Jim Ryun	United States	3: 44.4 min
5	Karl-Uno Olofsson	Sweden	3: 44.8 min
6th	Olavi saloons	Finland	3: 46.8 min
7th	Francesco Bianchi	Italy	3: 47.9 min
8th	Ebrahim Yazdan Panah	Iran	3: 54.8 min
9	Albie Thomas	Australia	3: 54.9 min
10	Tira Klai-Angtong	Thailand	4: 08.7 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	3: 45.8 min
2	Wolf-Dieter Holtz	Germany	3: 46.6 min
3	Tom O'Hara	United States	3: 46.7 min
4th	Peter Snell	New Zealand	3: 46.8 min
5	Stig Lindbäck	Sweden	3: 47.1 min
6th	Volker Tulzer	Austria	3: 49.0 min
7th	Rolf Jelinek	Switzerland	3: 51.2 min
8th	Michel Medinger	Luxembourg	3: 51.8 min
9	Chung Kyo-mo	South Korea	3: 53.0 min
10	Hugo Walser	Liechtenstein	3: 53.3 min
11	Anar Khan	Pakistan	3: 56.7 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Alan Simpson	Great Britain	3: 42.8 min
2	Jean Wadoux	France	3: 43.0 min
3	Josef Odložil	Czechoslovakia	3: 43.2 min
4th	Eugène Allonsius	Belgium	3: 43.3 min
5	Simo Važić	Yugoslavia	3: 43.7 min
6th	Siegfried Valentin	Germany	3: 44.9 min
7th	Mamo Sebsibe	Ethiopia	3: 45.8 min
8th	Ivan Belitsky	Soviet Union	3: 46.7 min
9	Attila Simon	Hungary	3: 49.1 min
10	Toichi Yamaguchi	Japan	3: 56.7 min
11	Eric Amevor	Ghana	3: 58.4 min
12	Patrick Field	Hong Kong	4: 02.6 min

Semifinals

Date: October 19, 1964, from 11 a.m.

Weather conditions: clear, approx. 17 ° C, humidity approx. 48%

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	3: 38.8 min
2	Witold Baran	Poland	3: 38.9 min
3	Josef Odložil	Czechoslovakia	3: 39.3 min
4th	Michel Bernard	France	3: 39.7 min
5	John Whetton	Great Britain	3: 39.9 min
6th	Wolf-Dieter Holtz	Germany	3: 42.3 min
7th	Karl-Uno Olofsson	Sweden	3: 44.8 min
8th	Ergas Leps	Canada	3: 51.2 min
9	Jim Ryun	United States	3: 55.0 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dyrol Burleson	United States	3: 41.5 min
2	Alan Simpson	Great Britain	3: 41.5 min
3	John Davies	New Zealand	3: 41.9 min
4th	Jean Wadoux	France	3: 41.9 min
5	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	3: 41.9 min
6th	Eugène Allonsius	Belgium	3: 41.9 min
7th	Tom O'Hara	United States	3: 43.4 min
8th	Jürgen May	Germany	3: 46.8 min
9	Simo Važić	Yugoslavia	3: 48.3 min

final

Scene from the finale: Snell (466), Bernard (120), Davies (467), Whetton (160); behind Snell and Bernard runs Baran, behind them Wadoux. Simpson can be seen between Bernard and Davies, the head in the background belongs to Odložil. Burleson runs between Davies and Whetton.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	3: 38.1 min
2	Josef Odložil	Czechoslovakia	3: 39.6 min
3	John Davies	New Zealand	3: 39.6 min
4th	Alan Simpson	Great Britain	3: 39.7 min
5	Dyrol Burleson	United States	3: 40.0 min
6th	Witold Baran	Poland	3: 40.3 min
7th	Michel Bernard	France	3: 41.2 min
8th	John Whetton	Great Britain	3: 42.4 min
9	Jean Wadoux	France	3: 45.4 min

Date: October 17, 1964, from 11 a.m.

Weather conditions: cloudy, approx. 20 ° C, humidity approx. 74%

The winner of the 800 meter race , New Zealander Peter Snell, was also the favorite for the 1500 meters after his confident performance . Some of the medal candidates were eliminated in the preliminary and semi-finals, above all the American Tom O'Hara. The German Siegfried Valentin, who had shown excellent times beforehand, was also one of the runners who were eliminated. The Frenchman Michel Jazy decided not to take part in the 1500 meters after his prelim victory over 5000 meters in order to concentrate fully on the longer distance. In both disciplines, Jazy was one of the most popular favorites. However, it was not enough for him to win a medal.

The Frenchman Michel Bernard took the lead on the first lap of the final race, the 400 meter mark was passed in 58.0 s. At 800 meters, Snell's compatriot John Davies was in front, the intermediate time here was 2: 00.5 min, the race was not exactly very fast. On the back straight of the final lap there was the same scenario as before over 800 meters. Snell shot to the top and ran to the Olympic gold medal. On the home stretch, he let it slip a bit and ran to his third gold medal at the Olympic Games. In the fight for silver, Davies was intercepted by the Czechoslovak Josef Odložil. The Briton Alan Simpson finished fourth. The world and Olympic records of the Australian Herb Elliott remained completely untouched here in Tokyo .

Josef Odložil won the first Czechoslovak medal over 1500 meters.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 257–259

Video

• Mens 800m and 1500m Tokyo 1964 highlights (Peter Snell Documentary) , published August 22, 2011 on youtube.com, accessed October 25, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed October 25, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1964 p. 29f engl. (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 549 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ) retrieved on October 25, 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 17 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report of the Olympic Games 1964 ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 29 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017 
4. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 30 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017 
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed October 25, 2017