The men's 1500 meter run at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich was held from September 8 to 10, 1972 in the Munich Olympic Stadium. 66 athletes took part.
The Olympic champion was the Finn Pekka Vasala . The silver medal went to the Kenyan Kipchoge Keino , bronze went to the New Zealander Rod Dixon .
For the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - Thomas Wessinghage , Bodo Tümmler and Paul-Heinz Wellmann started . All three survived the preliminary runs, Wessinghage and Tümmler were eliminated in the semi-finals. Wellmann qualified for the final and was seventh there.
The GDR was represented by Klaus-Peter Justus , who was eliminated in the semifinals.
The Swiss Werner Meier retired in the preliminary run.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.
The athletes competed in a total of seven heats on September 8th. The four best runners and the two fastest runners below made it to the semi-finals on September 9th. From this, the three best runners and the following fastest qualified for the final on September 10th.
Time schedule
September 8, 4:45 p.m .: Preliminaries
September 9, 4:40 p.m .: Semi-finals
September 10, 3:35 p.m .: Final
The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green.
After about 1000 meters there was an incident in which the Ghanaian Billy Fordjour kicked the reigning world record holder Jim Ryun from the USA in the heel. Both fell, got up and were able to continue the race. Ryun, whose tactic had initially been to control the field from behind and run forward on the last lap, had no chance after the fall. He was penultimate and was eliminated. A protest by the United States Olympic Committee was dismissed.
The 1968 Olympic champion , Kipchoge Keino, was considered the favorite. There were numerous other medal contenders, including New Zealander Rodney Dixon, Kenyan Mike Boit, already 800m bronze medalist, and Briton Brendan Foster.
The pace in the final was not particularly high at the beginning - 400 m: 1: 01.4 min / 800 m: 2: 01.4 min. After 700 meters, Keino took the lead and pushed hard. Despite the increased tempo, the field remained together at first, but gradually more and more runners fell behind, the third lap was run in a very fast 55.1 seconds. At the exit of the last corner, Keino was just ahead of the Finn Pekka Vasala, behind that there was a gap. Boit and Dixon fought for third place. The Finn's final sprint for gold was too strong for Keino. Pekka Vasala was Olympic champion ahead of Kipchoge Keino. Rodney Dixon prevailed against Mike Boit and won the bronze medal. For Keino it was the second medal in Munich after his Olympic victory over 3000 meters .
The second half of the race was so fast that there were still very attractive finishing times. However, that was an Olympic record of Mexico City not reached.