1980 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	41 athletes from 30 countries
Competition location	Luzhniki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 30, 1980 (preliminary round) July 31, 1980 (semi-finals) August 1, 1980 (final)
Medalist Sebastian Coe ( GBR )   Jürgen Straub ( GDR )   Steve Ovett ( GBR )

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow was held on July 30th and 31st and August 1st, 1980 in the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium. 41 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Briton Sebastian Coe . He won ahead of Jürgen Straub from the GDR and the British Steve Ovett .

In addition to the medalist Straub, Andreas Busse also competed for the GDR . He also reached the final and was fourth there.
While the Swiss Pierre Délèze was eliminated in the preliminary round, the Austrian Robert Nemeth reached the semifinals.
Runners from Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Existing records

World record	3: 32.1 min	Sebastian Coe ( Great Britain )	Zurich , Switzerland	15th August 1979
		Steve Ovett ( Great Britain )	Oslo , Norway	July 15, 1980
Olympic record	3: 34.9 min	Kipchoge Keino ( Kenya )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	20th October 1968

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in four heats on July 30th. The four best runners and the two fastest runners reached the semi-finals on July 31st. Here the four best runners as well as the following fastest qualified for the final, which took place on August 1st.

Time schedule

July 30th, 5.10 p.m .: Prelim

July 31, 9:00 p.m .: semi-finals

August 1st, 5.30 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local time Moscow ( UTC + 3 )

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

Preliminary round

Date: July 30, 1980, from 5:10 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	José Marajo	France	3: 43.9 min
2	Mehdi Aidet	Algeria	3: 43.9 min
3	Dragan Zdravković	Yugoslavia	3: 44.0 min
4th	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 44.1 min
5	Pavel Yakovlev	Soviet Union	3: 44.2 min
6th	José Manuel Abascal	Spain	3: 44.7 min
7th	Mopeli Molapo	Lesotho	3: 55.5 min
8th	Khaled Khalifa Al-Shammari	Kuwait	3: 57.6 min
9	Vicente Santos	Mozambique	3: 58.7 min
DNS	Filbert Bayi	Tanzania

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Andreas Busse	GDR	3: 44.3 min
2	Vitaly Tyschtschenko	Soviet Union	3: 44.4 min
3	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	3: 44.4 min
4th	Alex Gonzalez	France	3: 44.6 min
5	Pierre Délèze	Switzerland	3: 44.8 min
6th	Haile Zeru	Ethiopia	3: 45.7 min
7th	Abderrahmane Morceli	Algeria	3: 46.0 min
8th	Sant Kumar	India	3: 55.6 min
9	Ishmael Mhaladi	Botswana	3: 59.1 min
10	George branch	Sierra Leone	4: 03.9 min
11	Damien Degboe	Benin	4: 15.3 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Vittorio Fontanella	Italy	3: 40.1 min
2	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 40.1 min
3	Antti Loikkanen	Finland	3: 40.5 min
4th	José Luis González	Spain	3: 40.9 min
5	João Campos	Portugal	3: 41.3 min
6th	Ray Flynn	Ireland	3: 42.0 min
7th	Nigusse Bekele	Ethiopia	3: 45.8 min
8th	Archfell Musango	Zambia	3: 53.7 min
9	Tisbite Rakotoarisoa	Madagascar	3: 55.9 min
10	Lê Quang Khải	Vietnam	4: 06.8 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 36.8 min
2	Jürgen Straub	GDR	3: 37.0 min
3	Robert Nemeth	Austria	3: 38.3 min
4th	Vladimir Malosemlin	Soviet Union	3: 38.7 min
5	Mirosław Żerkowski	Poland	3: 39.2 min
6th	Cash desk Balcha	Ethiopia	3: 43.1 min
7th	Jón Didriksson	Iceland	3: 44.4 min
8th	Derradji Harek	Algeria	3: 45.3 min
9	Marzouk Mabrouk	Libya	3: 54.3 min
10	Mohamed Malkhlouf	Syria	4: 00.4 min

Semifinals

Date: July 31, 1980, from 9 p.m.

Run 1

After gold over 800 meters now bronze over 1500 meters for the Briton Steve Ovett

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 43.1 min
2	Dragan Zdravković	Yugoslavia	3: 43.4 min
3	Andreas Busse	GDR	3: 43.5 min
4th	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 43.6 min
5	Vladimir Malosemlin	Soviet Union	3: 43.6 min
6th	Antti Loikkanen	Finland	3: 44.0 min
7th	João Campos	Portugal	3: 44.4 min
8th	Alex Gonzalez	France	3: 44.7 min
9	Mehdi Aidet	Algeria	3: 44.9 min

Run 2

Jürgen Straub from the GDR, surprising winner of the silver medal

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 39.4 min
2	Jürgen Straub	GDR	3: 39.4 min
3	José Marajo	France	3: 39.6 min
4th	Vittorio Fontanella	Italy	3: 40.1 min
5	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	3: 40.4 min
6th	Robert Nemeth	Austria	3: 40.8 min
7th	Vitaly Tyschtschenko	Soviet Union	3: 41.5 min
8th	José Luis González	Spain	3: 42.6 min
9	Mirosław Żerkowski	Poland	3: 48.2 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 38.40 min
2	Jürgen Straub	GDR	3: 38.80 min
3	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 38.99 min
4th	Andreas Busse	GDR	3: 40.17 min
5	Vittorio Fontanella	Italy	3: 40.37 min
6th	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	3: 40.66 min
7th	José Marajo	France	3: 41.48 min
8th	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 41.98 min
9	Dragan Zdravković	Yugoslavia	3: 43.05 min

Date: August 1, 1980, 5:30 p.m.

For the second time there was a duel between the two world's best middle distance athletes of their time, the Britons Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, as part of the Olympic Games in Moscow . At the major international athletics events before the games, they had avoided a direct encounter in competition by starting on different track lengths. After the convincing performance over 800 meters , Ovett was now slightly favored over Coe for this race as well. For the other medals, the two GDR runners Jürgen Straub and Andreas Busse, the Yugoslav Dragan Zdravković, the French José Marajo and perhaps the Italian Vittorio Fontanella had recommended themselves for the other medals, especially after good impressions in the heats and semi-finals.

As before, this race was run very tactically in the shorter middle distance. Nobody wanted to burn themselves out as a leader runner at a high starting pace. At 400 meters, Straub was in the lead. This time Coe stayed further up front from the start so as not to miss the connection at some point like on the 800-meter distance. The 400 meter transit time was 1: 01.82 minutes. The second lap was even slower. The field, tightly packed, passed the 800 meter mark in 1: 05.05 min. Straub continued to lead the way, but now accelerated the pace. As a result, the field expanded a little. Coe ran in his slipstream in second place, followed by Ovett. The third lap was considerably faster, at 1200 meters the intermediate time was 2: 59.44 minutes. And Straub picked up the pace again. In the target corner nothing changed in the front positions. At the start of the home straight, Coe sped past Straub, who initially fought hard. But Sebastian Coe could not be defeated this time. Jürgen Straub was defeated, but defended the silver medal against the storming Steve Ovett, who secured bronze. Andreas Busse was fourth ahead of Vittorio Fontanella.

Video

• 1980 Olympics Men's 1500m final , published February 23, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed December 24, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed December 24, 2017
• Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 32f, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 24, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF records. 1,500 m men , accessed December 24, 2017
2. ↑ Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 17, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 24, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Moscow 1980 Official Report, Volume III, Results , p. 33, English / French (PDF, 28 MB), accessed on December 24, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed December 24, 2017