1972 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	66 athletes from 46 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium Munich
Competition phase	September 8, 1972 (preliminary) September 9, 1972 (semi-finals) September 10, 1972 (final)
Medalist Pekka Vasala ( FIN )   Kipchoge Keino ( KEN )   Rod Dixon ( NZL )

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.

Existing records

World record	3: 33.1 min	Jim Ryun ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	July 8, 1967
Olympic record	3: 34.9 min	Kipchoge Keino ( Kenya )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	20th October 1968

Conducting the competition

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.

Preliminary round

Date: September 8, 1972, from 4:45 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 40.6 min
2	Dave Wottle	United States	3: 40.7 min
3	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	3: 40.8 min
4th	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	3: 40.8 min
5	Donaldo Arza	Panama	3: 41.8 min
6th	Ivan Ivanov	Soviet Union	3: 42.3 min
7th	Mehmet Tümkan	Turkey	3: 44.0 min
8th	Mohamed Kacemi	Algeria	3: 45.2 min
9	Daniel Andrade	Senegal	3: 59.2 min
10	Dafallah Sultan Farah	Sudan	4: 02.9 min

Forward 2

Bodo Tümmler (third from right) ,
BR Germany

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Francesco Arese	Italy	3: 44.0 min
2	Herman Mignon	Belgium	3: 44.2 min
3	Bodo Bottlenose Dolphin	BR Germany	3: 44.5 min
4th	Gerd Larsen	Denmark	3: 44.7 min
5	John Kirkbride	Great Britain	3: 45.3 min
6th	Filbert Bayi	Tanzania	3: 45.4 min
7th	Josef Horčic	Czechoslovakia	3: 45.7 min
8th	Bill Smart	Canada	3: 49.2 min
DNS	Bram Wassenaar	Netherlands
	Kassem Hamzé	Liberia

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Shibrou Regassa	Ethiopia	3: 43.6 min
2	Spilios Zacharopoulos	Greece	4: 10.83 min
3	Henryk Szordykowski	Poland	3: 44.2 min
4th	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	3: 44.4 min
5	André Dehertoghe	Belgium	3: 44.6 min
6th	Petre Lupan	Romania	3: 44.8 min
7th	Mohamed Makdouf	Morocco	3: 48.4 min
8th	Abdul Wahab Naser Al-Safra	Saudi Arabia	4: 14: 5 min
DNS	Benson Mulomba	Zambia
	Robert Leborgne	France

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	3: 40.0 min
2	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	3: 40.0 min
3	Gunnar Ekman	Sweden	3: 40.4 min
4th	Klaus-Peter Justus	GDR	3: 40.4 min
5	Gianni Del Buono	Italy	3: 40.8 min
6th	Werner Meier	Switzerland	3: 43.2 min
7th	Muhammad Younis	Pakistan	3: 44.1 min
8th	Vitus Ashaba	Uganda	3: 45.2 min
9	Jim Ryun	United States	3: 51.5 min
10	Billy Fordjour	Ghana	4: 08.2 min
DNS	Yevgeny Arshanov	Soviet Union

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.

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Hailu Ebba	Ethiopia	3: 41.6 min
2	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 41.8 min
3	Ray Smedley	Great Britain	3: 42.1 min
4th	Chris Fisher	Australia	3: 42.5 min
5	Frank Murphy	Ireland	3: 43.4 min
6th	Byron Dyce	Jamaica	3: 45.9 min
7th	Cosmas Silei	Kenya	3: 52.0 min
8th	Jože Međimurec	Yugoslavia	3: 52.1 min
9	Harry Nkopeka	Malawi	4: 00.9 min
10	Edward Kar	Liberia	4: 21.4 min

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Pekka Vasala	Finland	3: 40.9 min
2	Tom Hansen	Denmark	3: 41.1 min
3	Bob Wheeler	United States	3: 41.3 min
4th	Haico Scharn	GDR	3: 41.4 min
5	Ulf Högberg	Sweden	3: 41.5 min
6th	Edgard Salvé	Belgium	3: 42.1 min
7th	Anthony Colón	Puerto Rico	3: 44.6 min
8th	Edouard Rasoanaivo	Madagascar	3: 48.5 min
9	Jaiye Abidoye	Nigeria	3: 48.8 min
10	Mohamed Aboker	Somalia	3: 59.5 min

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mike Boit	Kenya	3: 42.2 min
2	Tony Polhill	New Zealand	3: 42.3 min
3	Volodymyr Pantelej	Soviet Union	3: 42.3 min
4th	Jacky Boxberger	France	3: 42.6 min
5	Mansour Guettaya	Tunisia	3: 43.9 min
6th	Fernando Mamede	Portugal	3: 45.1 min
7th	Azzedine Azzouzi	Algeria	3: 46.4 min
8th	Kenneth Elmer	Canada	3: 46.6 min
9	Esaie Fongang	Cameroon	3: 54.5 min
10	Jimmy Crampton	Burma	4: 06.9 min

Semifinals

Date: September 9, 1972, from 4.40 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mike Boit	Kenya	3: 41.3 min
2	Volodymyr Pantelej	Soviet Union	3: 41.6 min
3	Tom Hansen	Denmark	3: 41.6 min
4th	Dave Wottle	United States	3: 41.6 min
5	Chris Fisher	Australia	3: 42.0 min
6th	Gianni Del Buono	Italy	3: 42.0 min
7th	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 43.4 min
8th	Spilios Zacharopoulos	Greece	3: 43.5 min
9	Ulf Högberg	Sweden	3: 43.6 min
10	Hailu Ebba	Ethiopia	3: 43.7 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	3: 41.2 min
2	Herman Mignon	Belgium	3: 41.7 min
3	Tony Polhill	New Zealand	3: 41.8 min
4th	Shibrou Regassa	Ethiopia	3: 41.9 min
5	Jacky Boxberger	France	3: 42.4 min
6th	Henryk Szordykowski	Poland	3: 42.5 min
7th	Haico Scharn	Netherlands	3: 44.4 min
8th	Pekka Päivärinta	Finland	3: 45.1 min
9	Ray Smedley	Great Britain	3: 45.8 min
10	Bodo Bottlenose Dolphin	BR Germany	3: 50.0 min

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	3: 37.9 min
2	Pekka Vasala	Finland	3: 37.9 min
3	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	3: 38.2 min
4th	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 38.4 min
5	Gunnar Ekman	Sweden	3: 39.4 min
6th	Bob Wheeler	United States	3: 40.4 min
7th	Francesco Arese	Italy	3: 41.1 min
8th	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	3: 41.6 min
9	Klaus-Peter Justus	GDR	3: 44.6 min
10	Gerd Larsen	Denmark	3: 59.4 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Pekka Vasala	Finland	3: 36.3 min
2	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya	3: 36.8 min
3	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	3: 37.5 min
4th	Mike Boit	Kenya	3: 38.4 min
5	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	3: 39.0 min
6th	Herman Mignon	Belgium	3: 39.1 min
7th	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 40.1 min
8th	Volodymyr Pantelej	Soviet Union	3: 40.2 min
9	Tony Polhill	New Zealand	3: 41.8 min
10	Tom Hansen	Denmark	3: 46.6 min

Date: September 10, 1972, 3:35 p.m.

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.

literature

• Werner Schneider / Sport-Informations-Dienst / Bertelsmann Sportredaktion, The Olympic Games 1972. Munich - Kiel - Sapporo, Bertelsmann-Verlag, Munich, Gütersloh, Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-570-04559-5 , p. 51

Video

• Men's 1500m - Munich 1972 - 50 fps , published August 20, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed November 18, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed November 18, 2017
• Official report, Volume 3 "The competitions" , p. 51f, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 18, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 549 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 18 November 2017
2. ↑ Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 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. 43, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 18, 2017 
3. ↑ Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 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. 51f, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 18, 2017 
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 18, 2017
5. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, Volume 3 "The competitions" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 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. 52, English / French / German (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on November 18, 2017 
6. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 18, 2017