1976 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	45 athletes from 27 countries
Competition location	Montreal Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 29, 1976 (preliminary round) July 30, 1976 (semi-finals) July 31, 1976 (final)
Medalist John Walker ( NZL )   Ivo Van Damme ( BEL )   Paul-Heinz Wellmann ( FRG )

The men's 1500 meter run at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal was held from July 29 to 31, 1976 in the Montreal Olympic Stadium. 45 athletes took part.

New Zealander John Walker became Olympic champion . The Belgian Ivo Van Damme won the silver medal, the bronze medal went to Paul-Heinz Wellmann from the Federal Republic of Germany.

In addition to the medalist Wellmann, Karl Fleschen and Thomas Wessinghage also competed for the Federal Republic of Germany . While Fleschen was eliminated in the preliminary stages, Wessinghage was able to reach the semi-finals. Here he failed in fifth of his run, he was only twelve hundredths of a second short of qualifying for the final.
Both the Swiss Rolf Gysin and the Liechtenstein Günther Hasler were eliminated in their preliminary stages.
Runners from the GDR and Austria did not take part

Existing records

World record	3: 32.16 min	Filbert Bayi ( Tanzania )	Christchurch , New Zealand	2nd February 1974
Olympic record	3: 34.91 min	Kipchoge Keino ( Kenya )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	20th October 1968

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in five heats on July 29th. The three best runners and the following three fastest runners made it to the semi-finals on July 30th. From this, the four best runners and the following fastest qualified for the final, which took place on July 31st.

Time schedule

July 29, 4:40 p.m .: Prelim

July 30, 4:20 p.m .: semi-finals

July 31, 6:00 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Montreal time ( UTC − 5 )

The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green.

Preliminary round

Date: July 29, 1976, from 4.40 p.m.

Forward 1

Evert Hoving, Netherlands

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Marc Nevens	Belgium	3: 44.18 min
2	Heroes Baiona De Jesus	Portugal	3: 44.20 min
3	János Zemen	Hungary	3: 44.27 min
4th	Åke Svensson	Sweden	3: 44.42 min
5	Evert Hoving	Netherlands	3: 45.00 min
6th	Matt Centrowitz	United States	3: 45.02 min
7th	Antti Loikkanen	Finland	3: 45.32 min
8th	Ruben Sørensen	Denmark	3: 45.39 min
DNS	Mohamed Amakdouf	Morocco

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 37.89 min
2	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 37.93 min
3	Fernando Mamede	Portugal	3:37:98 min
4th	Herman Mignon	Belgium	3: 38.32 min
5	Mike Durkin	United States	3: 38.89 min
6th	Gheorghe Ghipu	Romania	3: 39.20 min
7th	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	3: 39.34 min
8th	Markku Laine	Finland	3: 45.32 min
9	Francisco Menocal	Nicaragua	4: 12.47 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Walker	New Zealand	3: 36.87 min
2	Frank Clement	Great Britain	3: 37.53 min
3	Graham Crouch	Australia	3: 37.97 min
4th	Paul Craig	Canada	3: 38.00 min
5	Francis Gonzalez	France	3: 38.59 min
6th	Bronislaw Malinowski	Poland	3: 41.67 min
7th	Ágúst Ásgeirsson	Iceland	3: 45.47 min
8th	Sheikr Al-Shabani	Saudi Arabia	4: 08.70 min
DNS	Gärderud is different	Sweden

Forward 4

The American Rick Wohlhuter won bronze over 800 meters and was sixth over 1500 meters

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 39.86 min
2	Ivo Van Damme	Belgium	3: 39.93 min
3	Rick Wohlhuter	United States	3: 39.94 min
4th	Niall O'Shaughnessy	Ireland	3: 40.12 min
5	Anthony Colón	Puerto Rico	3: 43.51 min
6th	Ulf Högberg	Sweden	3: 47.96 min
7th	Peter Spir	Canada	3: 59.60 min
8th	Emmanuel Saint-Hilaire	Haiti	4: 23.41 min
DNS	Carlo Grippo	Italy

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	3: 39.87 min
2	David Moorcroft	Great Britain	3: 40.69 min
3	Dave Hill	Canada	3: 41.24 min
4th	Karl Fleschen	BR Germany	3: 42.09 min
5	Rolf Gysin	Switzerland	3: 42.69 min
6th	Luis Medina	Cuba	3: 42.71 min
7th	Lars Martin Kaupang	Norway	3: 44.59 min
8th	Spilios Zacharopoulos	Greece	3: 45.12 min
9	Muhammad Siddique	Pakistan	3: 45.59 min

Semifinals

Date: July 30, 1976, from 4:20 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Walker	New Zealand	3: 39.65 min
2	Graham Crouch	Australia	3: 39.86 min
3	David Moorcroft	Great Britain	3: 39.88 min
4th	János Zemen	Hungary	3: 39.94 min
5	Thomas Wessinghage	BR Germany	3: 40.06 min
6th	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 40.34 min
7th	Herman Mignon	Belgium	3: 40.92 min
8th	Fernando Mamede	Portugal	3: 42.59 min
DNF	Dave Hill	Canada

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	3: 38.60 min
2	Rick Wohlhuter	United States	3: 38.71 min
3	Ivo Van Damme	Belgium	3: 38.75 min
4th	Frank Clement	Great Britain	3: 38.92 min
5	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 38.99 min
6th	Francis Gonzalez	France	3: 40.73 min
7th	Paul Craig	Canada	3: 41.02 min
8th	Marc Nevens	Belgium	3: 41.52 min
9	Heroes Baiona De Jesus	Portugal	3: 47.37 min

final

Olympic Champion John Walker, New Zealand

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Walker	New Zealand	3: 39.17 min
2	Ivo Van Damme	Belgium	3: 39.27 min
3	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	BR Germany	3: 39.33 min
4th	Eamonn Coghlan	Ireland	3: 39.51 min
5	Frank Clement	Great Britain	3: 39.65 min
6th	Rick Wohlhuter	United States	3: 40.64 min
7th	David Moorcroft	Great Britain	3: 40.94 min
8th	Graham Crouch	Australia	3: 41.80 min
9	János Zemen	Hungary	3: 43.02 min

Date: July 31, 1976, 6:00 p.m.

With world record holder Filbert Bayil , one of the best 1,500-meter runners of the time was missing due to the Tanzanian boycott . Thus the eagerly awaited duel between Bayi and New Zealander John Walker was not possible. Walker was clearly favored, but there was one imponderable: he suffered from compartment syndrome , which meant that his abilities could not be properly assessed. One of his strongest rivals was seen in the German middle distance athlete Thomas Wessinghage, who had top times in the Olympic season before the Games in Munich . After their strong performance over 800 meters, the Belgian Ivo Van Damme and the American Rick Wohlhuter belonged to the wider circle of medal contenders. Quite surprisingly, Wessinghage was eliminated in the preliminary decision, where his compatriot Paul-Heinz Wellmann threw him out of the race as the fastest fifth.

The finale started rather leisurely. The British David Moorcroft led the field for the first 600 meters. Here the Irishman Eamonn Coghlan took the lead. The 800 meter passage time was 2: 03.15 min. The field went into the last lap closely staggered and partly running next to each other. The 1200 meters were covered in 3; 01.23 minutes. On the back straight, about 250 meters from the target, Walker pushed forward from his second position and pulled on his dreaded sprint. Some runners were still able to keep up, but Walker gradually broke up and there was a small gap to his opponents. Behind him were Van Damme and Wohlhuter, followed by Coghlan. In the target curve Wohlhuter lost more and more of the connection. Paul-Heinz Wellmann recognized his chance and an exciting finale broke out between him, Van Damme and Coghlan for the medals behind John Walker, who managed to save his lead and became Olympic champion. As he did over 800 meters, Ivo Van Damme finally sprinted the silver medal from Paul-Heinz Wellmann, who surprisingly won bronze. Eamonn Coghlan was fourth ahead of Frank Clement and Rick Wohlhuter. John Walker covered the last 400 meters in a very fast 52.5 seconds, which was not surprising given the delayed pace of up to 1200 meters.

Ivo Van Damme won the first Belgian medal over 1500 meters .

literature

• Ernst Huberty / Willy B. Wange, The Olympic Games Montreal Innsbruck 1976, Lingen-Verlag, Cologne 1976, p. 220

Video

• 1976 Olympic 1500m Final , published September 24, 2006 on youtube.com, accessed December 12, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed December 12, 2017
• Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 55, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 549 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 12 December 2017
2. ↑ Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 23, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Montréal 1976 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 55, English / French (PDF, 23 MB), accessed on December 12, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed December 12, 2017