1984 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	59 athletes from 40 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 9, 1984 (preliminary round) August 10, 1984 (semi-finals) August 11, 1984 (final)
Medalist Sebastian Coe ( GBR )   Steve Cram ( GBR )   José Manuel Abascal ( ESP )

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 9, 10 and 11, 1984 . 59 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Briton Sebastian Coe . He won ahead of his compatriot Steve Cram and the Spaniard José Manuel Abascal .

The Federal Republic of Germany was represented by Uwe Becker , who was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Pierre Délèze and Peter Wirz started for Switzerland. Délèze had to cancel his advance. Wirz qualified for the final and finished sixth there.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the GDR were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1980	Sebastian Coe ( Great Britain )	3: 38.40 min	Moscow 1980
World Champion 1983	Steve Cram ( Great Britain )	3: 41.59 min	Helsinki 1983
European Champion 1982		3: 36.49 min	Athens 1982
Pan American Champion 1983	Agberto Guimarães ( Brazil )	3: 42.91 min	Caracas 1983
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1983	Ignacio Melecio ( Mexico )	3: 46.66 min	Havana 1983
South America Champion 1983	Emilio Ulloa ( Chile )	3: 48.3 min	Santa Fe 1983
Asian champion 1983	Suresh Yadav ( India )	3: 44.74 min	Kuwait City 1983
African champions 1982	Kipkoech Cheruiyot ( Kenya )	3: 42.2 min	Cairo 1982

Existing records

World record	3: 30.77 min	Steve Ovett ( Great Britain )	Rieti , Italy	4th September 1983
Olympic record	3: 34.91 min	Kipchoge Keino ( Kenya )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	20th October 1968

Preliminary round

Date: August 9, 1984

In the preliminary round, 59 participants were drawn in six runs. The first three athletes per run qualified for the quarter-finals. Furthermore, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , advanced. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

The Spaniard José Manuel Abascal achieved the fastest lead time with 3: 37.68 minutes in race 5. The slowest directly qualified athlete was Marcus O'Sullivan from Ireland in run 3 with 3: 49.65 min. The fastest athlete who could not qualify was his compatriot Frank O'Mara, who retired in the fourth run with 3: 41.76 minutes.

Forward 1

Omer Khalifa from Sudan reached the final and finished eighth there

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 38.51 min
2	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 38.93 min
3	Stefano Mei	Italy	3: 39.25 min
4th	Tony Rogers	New Zealand	3: 39.78 min
5	José Luis González	Spain	3: 47.01 min
6th	Faouzi Lahbi	Morocco	3: 47.54 min
7th	Paul Ceesay	Gambia	3: 59.14 min
8th	Amour Masoud Al-Sharji	Oman	4: 12.76 min
DNF	Antti Loikkanen	Finland
DNS	Charles Oliver	Solomon Islands

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Pascal Thiébaut	France	3: 45.18 min
2	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 45.30 min
3	Andrés Vera	Spain	3: 45.44 min
4th	Paul Donovan	Ireland	3: 45.70 min
5	Jama Mohamed Aden	Somalia	3: 46.80 min
6th	Mohamed Alouini	Tunisia	3: 49.78 min
7th	Dale Jones	Antigua and Barbuda	3: 55.65 min
8th	Kgomotso Balotthanyi	Botswana	3: 58.69 min
DNF	Oslen Barr	Guyana
DNS	Abdulrab Al-Gadi	North Yemen
	Sydney Maree	United States

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	3: 49.23 min
2	Agberto Guimarães	Brazil	3: 49.26 min
3	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 49.65 min
4th	Josephat Muraya	Kenya	3: 51.61 min
5	Gawain Guy	Jamaica	3: 52.04 min
6th	Claudio Patrignani	Italy	3: 52.63 min
7th	Mehdi Aidet	Algeria	3: 53.92 min
8th	Mouteb Al-Faouri	Jordan	3: 59.85 min
DNF	Pierre Délèze	Switzerland
DNS	William Wuycke	Venezuela
	Francisco Figueredo	Paraguay

Forward 4

The American Steve Scott reached the final and was Olympic tenth

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joaquim Cruz	Brazil	3: 41.01 min
2	Steve Scott	United States	3: 41.02 min
3	Michael Hillardt	Australia	3: 41.18 min
4th	Frank O'Mara	Ireland	3: 41.76 min
5	Alex Gonzalez	France	3: 42.84 min
6th	Mark Handelsman	Israel	3: 45.05 min
7th	Abderrahmane Morceli	Algeria	3: 45.09 min
8th	Archfell Musango	Zambia	3: 46.99 min
9	Adamou Allassane	Niger	3: 56.43 min
10	Tito Rodrigues	Suriname	4: 02.87 min

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	José Manuel Abascal	Spain	3: 37.68 min
2	Peter Wirz	Switzerland	3: 37.75 min
3	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	3: 37.76 min
4th	Riccardo Materazzi	Italy	3: 37.95 min
5	Patrick Scammell	Australia	3: 39.18 min
6th	James Igohe	Tanzania	3: 39.62 min
7th	Tapfumaneyi Jonga	Zimbabwe	3: 40.42 min
8th	Isaac Ganunga	Malawi	3: 53.86 min
9	Hugo Allan Garcia	Guatemala	3: 57.59 min
10	Kim Bok-joo	South Korea	4: 02.63 min
DNF	Ibrahim Aziz	United Arab Emirates

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 40.33 min
2	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 40.58 min
3	Peter O'Donoghue	New Zealand	3: 40.69 min
4th	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 40.72 min
5	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 41.69 min
6th	Zakaria Namonge	Tanzania	3: 45.55 min
7th	Batulamai Rajakumar	Malaysia	3: 55.19 min
8th	Jean-Marie Rudasingwa	Rwanda	3: 57.62 min
9	Philip Sinon	Seychelles	4: 25.80 min
10	Diosdato Lozano	Equatorial Guinea	4: 34.71 min
DNF	Omar Ortega	Argentina

Semifinals

Date: August 10, 1984

In the two semi-finals, the first four athletes qualified for each run. Furthermore, the four fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , advanced. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

In the first run, Peter Wirz and Joseph Chesire finished in fourth place at exactly the same time. Since, according to the regulations, only the first four places were intended for direct qualification, but now five runners had qualified directly, only three lucky losers progressed , contrary to what was planned .

The best time in the semifinals was achieved by the Spaniard José Manuel Abascal with 3: 35.70 min in run 1.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	José Manuel Abascal	Spain	3: 35.70 min
2	Steve Scott	United States	3: 35.71 min
3	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 35.81 min
4th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 35.83 min
	Peter Wirz	Switzerland
6th	Tony Rogers	New Zealand	3: 36.48 min
7th	Riccardo Materazzi	Italy	3: 36.51 min
8th	Michael Hillardt	Australia	3: 38.12 min
9	Pascal Thiébaut	France	3: 40.96 min
10	James Igohe	Tanzania	3: 41.57 min
DNF	Agberto Guimarães	Brazil
DSQ	Abdi Bile	Somalia

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 36.30 min
2	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 36.53 min
3	Andrés Vera	Spain	3: 36.55 min
	Steve Ovett	Great Britain
5	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 36.76 min
6th	Uwe Becker	BR Germany	3: 37.28 min
7th	Stefano Mei	Italy	3: 37.96 min
8th	Peter O'Donoghue	New Zealand	3: 38.71 min
9	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 39.40 min
10	Patrick Scammell	Australia	3: 40.83 min
11	Tapfumaneyi Jonga	Zimbabwe	3: 41.80 min
DNS	Joaquim Cruz	Brazil

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	3: 32.53 min	OR
2	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 33.40 min
3	José Manuel Abascal	Spain	3: 34.30 min
4th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 34.52 min
5	Jim Spivey	United States	3: 36.07 min
6th	Peter Wirz	Switzerland	3: 36.97 min
7th	Andrés Vera	Spain	3: 37.02 min
8th	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 37.11 min
9	Tony Rogers	New Zealand	3: 38.98 min
10	Steve Scott	United States	3: 39.86 min
11	Riccardo Materazzi	Italy	3: 40.74 min
DNF	Steve Ovett	Great Britain

Date: August 11, 1984

For the final on August 11, 1984, all three Britons as well as two Americans and two Spaniards had qualified. There was also one runner each from Kenya, Italy, Switzerland, Sudan and New Zealand.

The three British were the favorites. In addition to Steve Ovett and world record holder Sebastian Coe , there was also world and European champion Steve Cram . The audience paid special attention to the local California hero, Vice World Champion Steve Scott .

The first five hundred meters in which the field stayed together was led by Sudanese Omer Khalifa . On the back straight on lap two, Scott moved forward and increased the pace. The field now stretched a little. On this lap, Coe was third behind Khalifa at the end of the target curve, followed by Cram, the Spaniard José Manuel Abascal and the Kenyan Joseph Chesire . On lap three, Khalifa and Chesire continued to lose ground, Abascal and Coe overtook Scott. At the beginning of the last lap, Abascal was ahead of Coe and Cram, with Ovett ahead of Scott and his compatriot Jim Spivey . Ovett, who was suffering from breathing problems, gave up the race in the current corner. On the back straight Abascal, Coe and Cram accelerated the pace, Chesire tried to keep up. Coe and Cram passed Abascal before the last corner. On the home straight, the two Brits increased the pace again and sprinted for the Olympic victory, Abascal could no longer hold back and now had to fight off the attacks of the Kenyan. Coe finally won the race in a new Olympic record before Cram. Abascal brought the bronze medal to the finish just before Chesire. Behind the Kenyan, Spivey had moved up to 5th place in front of the Swiss Peter Wirz . The second Spaniard Andrés Vera followed in 7th place. The other places were occupied by Khalifa, New Zealander Tony Rogers, Scott and in 11th place the Italian Riccardo Materazzi.

Sebastian Coe was the first athlete to repeat his Olympic victory in this discipline.
José Manuel Abascal won the first Spanish medal in the 1500 meters .

literature

• Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Sarajevo with contributions by Ulrich Kaiser and Heinz Maegerlein , eds. Manfred Vorderwülbecke , C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01851-2 , p. 19

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed January 6, 2018
• Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , pp. 276f, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 6, 2018

Video

• Olympics - 1984 Los Angeles - Track - Mens 1500m Finals - Gold GBR Sebastian Coe imasportsphile , published April 27, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed January 6, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 670 , accessed on January 6, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 276, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 6, 2018
3. ↑ Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 277, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 6, 2018
4. ↑ SportsReference 1500 m , accessed January 6, 2018