1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	59 athletes from 46 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 29, 1988 (preliminary round) September 30, 1988 (semi-finals) October 1, 1988 (final)
Medalist Peter Rono ( KEN )   Peter Elliott ( GBR )   Jens-Peter Herold ( GDR )

The men's 1500 meter run at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held from September 29 to October 1, 1988 in three rounds in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 59 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Kenyan Peter Rono . He won ahead of the British Peter Elliott and Jens-Peter Herold from the GDR.

With Markus Hacksteiner , Marco Rapp and Peter Wirz , three Swiss took part in the competition. Rapp failed in the preliminary round, Hacksteiner and Wirz failed in the semi-finals, whereby Wirz could not finish his semi-final race.
Runners from the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Sebastian Coe ( Great Britain )	3: 32.53 min	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Abdi Bile ( Somalia )	3: 36.80 min	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Steve Cram ( Great Britain )	3: 41.09 min	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Joaquim Cruz ( Brazil )	3: 47.34 min	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Raúl Mesa ( Cuba )	3: 46.17 min	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Gilson Wiggers ( Brazil )	3: 46.62 min	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Duan Xiuquan ( People's Republic of China )	3: 45.11 min	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Getahun Ayana ( Ethiopia )	3: 42.77 min	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	3: 29.46 min	Saïd Aouita ( Morocco )	Berlin , FR Germany (now Germany )	23rd August 1985
Olympic record	3: 32.53 min	Sebastian Coe ( Great Britain )	Los Angeles final , USA	August 11, 1984

Preliminary round

Date: September 29, 1988

The athletes competed in a total of four heats. The first five athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

The American Steve Scott finished fifth in the Olympics

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 40.89 min
2	Steve Scott	United States	3: 41.57 min
3	Remi Geoffroy	France	3: 41.68 min
4th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 41.72 min
5	Gennaro Di Napoli	Italy	3: 41.85 min
6th	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 42.01 min
7th	Ari Suhonen	Finland	3: 43.61 min
8th	José Luíz Barbosa	Brazil	3: 44.46 min
9	Branko Zorko	Yugoslavia	3: 45.52 min
10	Michael Watson	Bermuda	3: 46.49 min
11	Melford Homela	Zimbabwe	3: 47.38 min
12	Hoche Yaya Aden	Djibouti	3: 51.56 min
13	Eugénio Katombi	Angola	3: 54.25 min
14th	Modupe Jonah	Sierra Leone	3: 55.15 min
15th	Mohamed Ould Khayar	Mauritania	4: 12.18 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 39.98 min
2	Mark Deady	United States	3: 41.91 min
3	Mogens Guldberg	Denmark	3: 42.01 min
4th	Said Aouita	Morocco	3: 42.18 min
5	Mario Silva	Portugal	3: 42.24 min
6th	Marco Rapp	Switzerland	3: 42.64 min
7th	David Campbell	Canada	3: 42.97 min
8th	Mohamed Suleiman	Qatar	3: 44.43 min
9	Duan Xiuquan	People's Republic of China	3: 44.88 min
10	Patrick Scammell	Australia	3: 45.21 min
11	Jama Mohamed Aden	Somalia	3: 49.84 min
12	Ramón López	Paraguay	3: 53.31 min
13	Kenneth Dzekedzeke	Malawi	4: 02.61 min
14th	Bernardo Elonga	Equatorial Guinea	4: 16.40 min
DNS	Nimely Twegbe	Liberia

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Rono	Kenya	3: 37.65 min
2	Jeff Atkinson	United States	3: 38.33 min
3	Peter Elliott	Great Britain	3: 38.60 min
4th	Markus Hacksteiner	Switzerland	3: 39.05 min
5	Mustapha Lachaal	Morocco	3: 39.20 min
6th	Rachid stuff	Algeria	3: 39.90 min
7th	Joaquim Cruz	Brazil	3: 40.92 min
8th	Mbiganyi Thee	Botswana	3: 41.97 min
9	Spyros Spyrou	Cyprus	3: 42.32 min
10	Gerald O'Reilly	Ireland	3: 43.23 min
11	Jo Jin-saeng	South Korea	3: 45.63 min
12	Jan Kubista	Czechoslovakia	3: 46.41 min
13	Moses Zarak Khan	Fiji	4: 03.20 min
14th	Awad Saleh Ahmed	North Yemen	4: 03.86 min
15th	John Siguria	Papua New Guinea	4: 07.04 min

Forward 4

Omer Khalifa from Sudan was twelfth in the final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 40.87 min
2	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 40.90 min
3	Steve Crabb	Great Britain	3: 41.12 min
4th	Peter Wirz	Switzerland	3: 41.26 min
5	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 41.46 min
6th	Abdel Majid Moncef	Morocco	3: 41.73 min
7th	Mahmoud El-Kalboussi	Tunisia	3: 43.72 min
8th	Dale Jones	Antigua and Barbuda	3: 51.22 min
9	Mohamed Barak Al-Dosari	Saudi Arabia	3: 51.33 min
10	Eulucane Ndagijimana	Rwanda	3: 51.61 min
11	Josep Gralls	Andorra	3: 52.68 min
12	Zeki Öztürk	Turkey	3: 54.26 min
13	Douglas Consiglio	Canada	3: 55.31 min
14th	Be Gayaplé	Chad	3: 58.46 min
15th	Hari Bahadur Rokaya	Kingdom of Nepal	4: 07.04 min

Semifinals

Date: September 30, 1988

The first five athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

In the foreground the Dutchman Han Kulker, who took sixth place in the final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 38.09 min
2	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 38.30 min
3	Peter Elliott	Great Britain	3: 38.56 min
4th	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 39.06 min
5	Jeff Atkinson	United States	3: 39.12 min
6th	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 39.17 min
7th	Mogens Guldberg	Denmark	3: 39.86 min
8th	Remi Geoffroy	France	3: 40.96 min
9	Rachid stuff	Algeria	3: 41.39 min
10	Spyros Spyrou	Cyprus	3: 43.49 min
DNF	Abdel Majid Moncef	Morocco
	Peter Wirz	Switzerland
DNS	Joaquim Cruz	Brazil

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Scott	United States	3: 38.20 min
2	Peter Rono	Kenya	3: 38.25 min
3	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 38.40 min
4th	Mario Silva	Portugal	3: 38.56 min
5	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 38.59 min
6th	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 38.84 min
7th	Markus Hacksteiner	Switzerland	3: 39.18 min
8th	Mark Deady	United States	3: 39.47 min
9	Steve Crabb	Great Britain	3: 39.55 min
10	Mbiganyi Thee	Botswana	3: 42.62 min
11	Gennaro Di Napoli	Italy	3: 43.58 min
12	Moustapha Lachaal	Morocco	3: 45.65 min
DNS	Said Aouita	Morocco

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Peter Rono	Kenya	3: 35.96 min
2	Peter Elliott	Great Britain	3: 36.15 min
3	Jens-Peter Herold	GDR	3: 36.21 min
4th	Steve Cram	Great Britain	3: 36.24 min
5	Steve Scott	United States	3: 36.99 min
6th	Han Kulker	Netherlands	3: 37.08 min
7th	Kipkoech Cheruiyot	Kenya	3: 37.94 min
8th	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 38.39 min
9	Mario Silva	Portugal	3: 38.77 min
10	Jeff Atkinson	United States	3: 40.80 min
11	Joseph Chesire	Kenya	3: 40.82 min
12	Omer Khalifa	Sudan	3: 41.07 min

Date: October 1, 1988

All three Kenyans had qualified for the final. The field was completed by two British, two US-Americans and one runner each from the GDR, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sudan.

The favorite was the Moroccan Saïd Aouita, who had to forego the semi-finals due to an injury to his Achilles tendon. The Somali world champion Abdi Bile was unable to compete in Seoul due to a fatigue fracture of his shin. Therefore, the favorite role fell to the Briton Steve Cram, who was the first athlete to reach an Olympic final over 1500 meters three times in a row . The strongest rivals were his compatriot Peter Elliott, fourth over 800 meters here in Seoul, as well as Steve Scott from the USA and the two Kenyans, who were convincing in the semifinals.

The final race wasn't particularly quick at the beginning. With the Irish Marcus O'Sullivan in the lead, the first lap was run in 59.65 s. After 700 meters, the Kenyan Peter Rono took the lead, the 800-meter intermediate time was 2: 00.31 min - the pace had even been dragged a little further. The field was accordingly still close together with the American Jeff Atkinson in second place ahead of Kipkoech Cheruiyot from Kenya and Cram. At the beginning of the last lap, Rono pushed hard, at 1200 meters the intermediate time was 2: 56.69 min. So it had gotten a lot faster. On the back straight Elliott and Jens-Peter Herold from the GDR had pushed forward and ran close behind Rono. Cram was also fourth in the battle for the medals, while Atkinson fell behind. It was in this order that we hit the home straight. It was getting really tight there. Rono held his lead, Herold was second and Cram moved closer and closer. At the finish line, Peter Rono finally won just ahead of Peter Elliott and Jens-Peter Herold, who was just able to prevail against Steve Cram in the battle for bronze. American Steve Scott finished fifth and Dutch Han Kulker came sixth.

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed January 23, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 226f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 23, 2018

Video

• 1500m Final Men - 1988 , published April 5, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed January 23, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 670 , accessed on January 23, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul, volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 226f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 23, 2018
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 227, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 23, 2018