1964 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	47 athletes from 32 countries
Competition location	Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	October 14, 1964 (preliminary) October 15, 1964 (semi-finals) October 16, 1964 (final)
Medalist Peter Snell ( NZL )   Bill Crothers ( CAN )   Wilson Kiprugut ( KEN )

The men's 800-meter run at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo was held from October 14 to 16, 1964 in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. 47 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the New Zealander Peter Snell . He won in front of the Canadian Bill Crothers and the Kenyan Wilson Kiprugut .

Three Germans and one athlete each from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein started. All three German starters reached the semifinals. Here Manfred Matuschewski and Manfred Kinder dropped out. Dieter Bogatzki qualified for the final and finished seventh there. The Austrian Rudolf Klaban also made it to the semi-finals, but was eliminated there. For the Swiss Rolf Jelinek and the Liechtenstein Hugo Walser it was already over after the heats.

Existing records

World record	1: 44.3 min	Peter Snell ( New Zealand )	Christchurch , New Zealand	3rd February 1962
Olympic record	1: 46.3 min		Final of Rome , Italy	2nd September 1960

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of six heats on October 14th. The four best runners qualified for the next round. From the semi-finals on October 15th, the two best participants and the two fastest participants reached the final on October 16th.

Time schedule

October 14, 3:15 p.m .: Preliminary
October 15, 3 p.m .: Semi-finals
October 16, 4:40 p.m .: Final
All times are Tokyo local time (UTC + 9)

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

Prelims

Date: October 14, 1964, from 3:15 p.m.

Weather conditions: cloudy, approx. 18 ° C, humidity approx. 85%

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1: 47.8 min
2	Tom Farrell	United States	1: 48.6 min
3	Valery Bulishev	Soviet Union	1: 48.6 min
4th	Jos Lambrechts	Belgium	1: 48.9 min
5	François Châtelet	France	1: 48.9 min
6th	Ebrahim Yazdan Panah	Iran	1: 54.7 min
7th	Hugo Walser	Liechtenstein	1: 57.5 min
8th	Nipon pensuvapap	Thailand	1: 58.8 min

Forward 2

Dulamyn Amarsanaa was the first track and field athlete from Mongolia to take part in the Olympic Games.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dieter Bogatzki	Germany	1: 50.3 min
2	Stig Lindbäck	Sweden	1: 50.8 min
3	Chris Carter	Great Britain	1: 51.0 min
4th	Pekka Juutilainen	Finland	1: 51.0 min
5	Neville Myton	Jamaica	1: 52.4 min
6th	Michel Medinger	Luxembourg	1: 52.6 min
7th	Dulamyn Amarsanaa	Mongolia	1: 56.3 min
8th	Anar Khan	Pakistan	1: 56.4 min

Forward 3

Ahmed Issa was the first Olympian from Chad .

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Manfred children	Germany	1: 49.5 min
2	Ahmed Issa	Chad	1: 49.7 min
3	Derek McCleane	Ireland	1: 49.9 min
4th	Pure Tölp	Soviet Union	1: 50.0 min
5	Peter Francis	Kenya	1: 50.1 min
6th	Morgan Groth	United States	1: 51.4 min
7th	José Neira	Colombia	1: 55.6 min
8th	Ramasamy Subramaniam	Malaysia	1: 58.5 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 49.0 min
2	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 49.2 min
3	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1: 49.2 min
4th	Abram Kryvosheev	Soviet Union	1: 49.5 min
5	Alan Dean	Great Britain	1: 49.6 min
6th	Chung Kyo-mo	South Korea	1: 51.8 min
7th	Don Bertoia	Canada	1: 52.2 min
8th	Mamo Sebsibe	Ethiopia	1: 52.8 min

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Boulter	Great Britain	1: 48.9 min
2	George Kerr	Jamaica	1: 48.9 min
3	Tony Blue	Australia	1: 49.7 min
4th	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 50.0 min
5	Noel Carroll	Ireland	1: 51.1 min
6th	Rolf Jelinek	Switzerland	1: 54.6 min

Forward 6

Maurice Lurot (FRA) reached the semi-finals

Patrick Field was the first track and field athlete to compete for Hong Kong .

With Mohamed Hassan Chabbanga, an athlete from Tanzania took part in the Olympic Games for the first time.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Bill Crothers	Canada	1: 49.3 min
2	Maurice Lurot	France	1: 49.8 min
3	Mamoru Morimoto	Japan	1: 49.9 min
4th	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1: 49.9 min
5	Francesco Bianchi	Italy	1: 50.2 min
6th	Paul Roekaerts	Belgium	1: 50.9 min
7th	Patrick Field	Hong Kong	1: 54.0 min
8th	Hassan Dyamwale	Tanganyika	1: 54.9 min

Semifinals

Eliminated in the semi-finals: Manfred Kinder (GER)

Date: October 15, 1964, from 3 p.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, approx. 23 ° C, humidity approx. 62%

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 46.9 min
2	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 47.0 min
3	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1: 47.0 min
4th	Manfred Matuschewski	Germany	1: 47.3 min
5	Valery Bulishev	Soviet Union	1: 47.5 min
6th	Mamoru Morimoto	Japan	1: 47.7 min
7th	Maurice Lurot	France	1: 49.7 min
8th	Stig Lindbäck	Sweden	1: 49.8 min

Run 2

Scene from the second semi-final run (from left to right): Siebert, Snell, Matuschewski, Bulischew, Lurot, Morimoto, Pennewaert. Far right only partially in the picture Lindback

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	George Kerr	Jamaica	1: 46.1 min	OR
2	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1: 46.1 min	OR
3	Dieter Bogatzki	Germany	1: 46.9 min
4th	John Boulter	Great Britain	1: 47.1 min
5	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1: 47.4 min
6th	Abram Kryvosheev	Soviet Union	1: 47.5 min
7th	Derek McCleane	Ireland	1: 48.4 min
8th	Pekka Juutilainen	Finland	1: 50.3 min

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Bill Crothers	Canada	1: 47.3 min
2	Tom Farrell	United States	1: 47.8 min
3	Manfred children	Germany	1: 47.9 min
4th	Chris Carter	Great Britain	1: 49.1 min
5	Pure Tölp	Soviet Union	1: 49.1 min
6th	Ahmed Issa	Chad	1: 49.4 min
7th	Tony Blue	Australia	1: 49.6 min
8th	Jos Lambrechts	Belgium	1: 52.8 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1: 45.1 min	OR
2	Bill Crothers	Canada	1: 45.6 min
3	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1: 45.9 min
4th	George Kerr	Jamaica	1: 45.9 min
5	Tom Farrell	United States	1: 46.6 min
6th	Jerry Siebert	United States	1: 47.0 min
7th	Dieter Bogatzki	Germany	1: 47.2 min
8th	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1: 50.5 min

Date: October 16, 1964, 4:40 p.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, approx. 19 ° C, humidity approx. 52%

The favorite should actually be the world record holder and Olympic champion from 1960 , Peter Snell. But in the Olympic year his performances were not very convincing. Therefore some doubts arose here about his role. But the New Zealander was already very confident in the run-up and the semi-finals. However, other athletes with good times also moved into the group of favorites. The Jamaican George Kerr and the previously completely unknown Kenyan Wilson Kiprugut improved Snell's Olympic record by two tenths of a second in the second preliminary round.

In the final, as in his prelims, Kiprugut took the lead. He passed the 400 meter mark in an excellent 52.1 seconds. Despite the high speed, the field still remained together. On the back straight, Snell pushed enormously and immediately created an ever-growing gap to his competitors. The decision to win the Olympic gold was made. Behind Snell, the Canadian Bill Crothers ran for the silver medal. Kiprugut and Kerr, who had already crossed the finish line at the same time in the semi-finals, competed for bronze. It was the same now, only with the opposite outcome. Kiprugut won bronze ahead of Kerr. The first four runners undercut the current Olympic record from the semi-finals.

Wilson Kiprugut was Kenya's first Olympic medalist.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 255–257

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 800m , accessed October 25, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1964 p. 27f engl. (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 548 (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. ↑ 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. 27 (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. 27f (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017 
5. ↑ 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. 28 (English) from library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 25, 2017 
6. ↑ Sport Reference (Engl.) ( Memento of 22 December 2008 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 25 October 2017