1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
Attendees	39 athletes from 22 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	October 14, 1968 (preliminary) October 16, 1968 (final)
Medalist Amos Biwott ( KEN )   Benjamin Kogo ( KEN )   George Young ( USA )

The men's 3000 meter obstacle course at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was held on October 14 and 16, 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 39 athletes took part.

The Kenyan Amos Biwott became Olympic champion . He won ahead of his compatriot Benjamin Kogo and the American George Young .

For the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - Klaus-Ludwig Brosius , Willi Wagner and Heinz-Gerd Mölders started , all three of whom were eliminated in their heats, as did the Swiss Hans Menet.
Runners from the GDR - officially East Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	8: 24.2 min	Jouko Kuha ( Finland )	Stockholm , Sweden	17th July 1968
Olympic record	8: 30.8 min	Gaston Roelants ( Belgium )	Tokyo finals , Japan	17th October 1964

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of three heats on October 14th. The four best runners qualified for the final on October 16.

Time schedule

October 14, 5 p.m .: preliminary runs

October 16, 5:20 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Preliminary round

Date: October 14, 1968, from 5 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Benjamin Kogo	Kenya	8: 57.8 min	8: 57.80 min
2	Javier Álvarez	Spain	9: 03.8 min	9: 03.74 min
3	Bengt Persson	Sweden	9: 06.4 min	9: 06.43 min
4th	Arne Risa	Norway	9: 07.2 min	9: 07.31 min
5	John Jackson	Great Britain	9: 11.4 min	9: 11.33 min
6th	Conrad Nightingale	United States	9: 13.2 min	9: 13.23 min
7th	Tadesse Wolde-Medhin	Ethiopia	9: 13.2 min	9: 13.24 min
8th	Manuel de Oliveira	Portugal	9: 19.2 min	9: 19.22 min
9	Klaus-Ludwig Brosius	BR Germany	9: 24.0 min	9: 23.98 min
10	János Szabó	Hungary	9: 25.8 min	9: 25.82 min
11	Pedro Miranda	Mexico	9: 26.0 min	9: 25.95 min
12	Domingo Amaizón	Argentina	9: 43.0 min	9: 43.06 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jean-Paul Villain	France	9: 01.2 min	9:01.12 min
2	George Young	United States	9: 02.2 min	9: 01.49 min
3	Kerry O'Brien	Australia	9: 02.4 min	9: 02.31 min
4th	Viktor Kudinski	Soviet Union	9: 05.2 min	9:05:25 min
5	Willi Wagner	BR Germany	9: 16.0 min	9: 15.93 min
6th	Labidi Ayachi	Tunisia	9: 24.4 min	9: 24.49 min
7th	Nobuyoshi Miura	Japan	9: 24.6 min	9: 24.62 min
8th	Maurice Herriott	Great Britain	9: 33.0 min	9: 32.95 min
9	Albertino Etchechury	Uruguay	9: 34.6 min	9: 34.68 min
10	Eddy Van Butsele	Belgium	9: 35.6 min	9: 35.61 min
11	Jan Cych	Poland	9: 38.8 min	9: 38.79 min
12	Hans Menet	Switzerland	9: 50.8 min	9: 50.78 min
13	Efraín Cordero	Colombia	10:02.0 min	10:02.06 min
DNF	Mariano Haro	Spain

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Amos Biwott	Kenya	8: 49.4 min	8: 49.39 min
2	Mikhail Shelev	Bulgaria	9: 01.0 min	9: 01.96 min
3	Gaston Roelants	Belgium	9: 08.2 min	9: 08.29 min
4th	Alexander Morozov	Soviet Union	9: 08.4 min	9: 08.45 min
5	Bill Reilly	United States	9: 10.4 min	9: 10.35 min
6th	Peter Welsh	New Zealand	9: 13.8 min	9: 13.80 min
7th	Gareth Bryan-Jones	Great Britain	9: 16.8 min	9: 16.86 min
8th	Jan-Erik Karlsson	Sweden	9: 19.6 min	9: 19.64 min
9	Taketsugu Saruwatari	Japan	9: 26.2 min	9: 26.30 min
10	Heinz-Gerd Mölders	BR Germany	9: 32.2 min	9: 32.22 min
11	Umberto Risi	Italy	9: 44.0 min	9: 43.97 min
12	Julio Quevedo	Guatemala	9: 48.4 min	9: 48.37 min
DNF	Guy Texereau	France

final

The 1964 Olympic champion , Gaston Roelants (Belgium), came seventh in the final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Amos Biwott	Kenya	8: 51.0 min	8: 51.02 min
2	Benjamin Kogo	Kenya	8: 51.6 min	8: 51.56 min
3	George Young	United States	8: 51.8 min	8: 51.86 min
4th	Kerry O'Brien	Australia	8: 52.0 min	8: 52.08 min
5	Alexander Morozov	Soviet Union	8: 55.8 min	8: 55.61 min
6th	Mikhail Shelev	Bulgaria	8: 58.4 min	8: 58.41 min
7th	Gaston Roelants	Belgium	8: 59.4 min	8: 59.50 min
8th	Arne Risa	Norway	9: 09.0 min	9: 08.98 min
9	Jean-Paul Villain	France	9: 16.2 min	9: 16.27 min
10	Bengt Persson	Sweden	9: 20.6 min	9: 20.61 min
11	Javer Álvarez	Spain	9: 24.6 min	9: 24.51 min
DNF	Viktor Kudinski	Soviet Union

Date: October 16, 1968, 5:20 p.m.

A real group of favorites was difficult to pin down , given the altitude of the venue as well as in the long-distance races . Medal candidates were the 1966 Soviet European champion , Viktor Kudinski, and the American George Young, who had won all of his races in the Olympic season so far. The Kenyan Amos Biwott was noticeable in the preliminary rounds, who had completely dominated his run and approached the moat with a very unusual technique. He avoided coming into contact with the water by jumping over the ditch entirely. His time in the third heat was ultimately faster than that of the winner in the final two days later.

In the final, the Kenyan Benjamin Kogo took the lead. Kudinski, on the other hand, stopped the race prematurely. In contrast to his lead, Biwott stayed further back in the field. the 1000 meter mark was passed in 3: 04.2 min - Biwott in the lead: 2: 45.0 min. Halfway through the course, the 1964 Olympic champion Gaston Roelants stepped forward and tried to achieve success by gradually increasing the pace. The passage time at 2000 meters was 6: 03.2 min - Biwott in the lead: 5: 48.8 min. On the penultimate lap the situation changed completely: Kogo started a long sprint, most of his competitors quickly lost contact. In the last lap the top group consisted only of the four runners Kogo, Young, the Australian Kerry O'Brien and Alexander Morosow from the USSR. On the back straight, Young was briefly ahead. Morosow now had to tear down too. But Biwott shot up from behind and the group of four with Kogo, Young, O'Brien and Biwott made it to the home straight in that order. Amos Biwott accelerated again and passed his rivals almost effortlessly. As an Olympic champion, he crossed the finish line, followed by Benjamin Kogo. The Americans and Australians fought for the bronze medal. George Young ended up third two tenths of a second ahead of Kerry O'Brien.

Amos Biwott achieved the first Kenyan Olympic victory in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 353–355

Video

• 1968 Olympic Games 3K Steeplechase, Mexico City , published February 28, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed November 7, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 3000 m obstacle , accessed November 7, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 78f., English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 7, 2017
• Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games p. 524, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 7, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 553 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 7, 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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. 10, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 7, 2017 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 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. 10, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 7, 2017 
4. ↑ In the SportsReference database, Wagner's time was incorrectly given as the time of the subsequent Tunisian Ayachi. All subsequent runners were also wrongly assigned the time of the subsequent athlete. The official report - p. 524 - as well as the literature listed here by Ekkehard zur Megede - p. 355 - list the results correctly.
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 7, 2017