1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	57 athletes from 36 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 29, 1996 (first round) 1 August 1996 (semifinals) August 3, 1996 (Final)
Medalist Noureddine Morceli ( ALG )   Fermín Cacho ( ESP )   Stephen Kipkorir ( KEN )

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was held on July 29 and August 1 and 3, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 57 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Algerian Noureddine Morceli . He won before the Spaniard Fermín Cacho and the Kenyan Stephen Kipkorir .

The German participant was Michael Gottschalk. He was eliminated in the preliminary stages, as did the Swiss Peter Philipp and the Austrians Thomas Ebner and Werner Edler-Muhr.

Athletes from Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1992	Fermín Cacho ( Spain )	3: 40.12 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	Noureddine Morceli ( Algeria )	3: 33.73 min	Gothenburg 1995
European Champion 1994	Fermín Cacho ( Spain )	3: 35.27 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American champion 1995	Joaquim Cruz ( Brazil )	3: 40.26 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champions 1995	José López ( Venezuela )	3: 50.5 min	Guatemala City 1995
South American Champion 1995	Carlos Díaz ( Chile )	3: 40.79 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Mohamad Al-Garni ( Qatar )	3: 41.42 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Moses Kigen ( Kenya )	3: 39.78 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania Champion 1994	John Henwood ( New Zealand )	3: 51.71 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	3: 27.37 min	Noureddine Morceli ( Algeria )	Nice , France	July 12, 1995
Olympic record	3: 32.53 min	Sebastian Coe ( Great Britain )	Los Angeles final , USA	August 11, 1984

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

Preliminary round

July 29, 1996, from 10:45 a.m.

The athletes competed in a total of five heats. The first four athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the four 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.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Laban Rotich	Kenya	3: 35.88
2	Marko Koers	Netherlands	3: 36.18
3	Niall Bruton	Ireland	3: 37.42
4th	Kevin McKay	Great Britain	3: 38.02
5	Ovidiu Olteanu	Romania	3: 38.33
6th	Vyacheslav Shabunin	Russia	3: 38.56
7th	Edgar de Oliveira	Brazil	3: 40.70
8th	Steve Agar	Dominica	3: 43.02
9	Brian Hyde	United States	3: 48.20
10	Andrij Bulkowskyj	Ukraine	3: 53.30
11	Tawai Keiruan	Vanuatu	4: 02.78

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Noureddine Morceli	Algeria	3: 41.95
2	John Mayock	Great Britain	3: 42.31
3	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 42.32
4th	Reyes Estévez	Spain	3: 42.48
5	Rachid El Basir	Morocco	3: 42.85
6th	Julius Achon	Uganda	3: 43.08
7th	Luís Jesus	Portugal	3: 44.65
8th	Joaquim Cruz	Brazil	3: 45.32
9	João N'Tyamba	Angola	3: 46.41
10	Ali Ibrahim	Djibouti	3: 46.62
11	Michael Gottschalk	Germany	3: 56.46

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Ali Hakimi	Tunisia	3: 36.58
2	Stephen Kipkorir	Kenya	3: 36.70
3	Balázs Tölgyesi	Hungary	3: 36.71
4th	Driss Maazouzi	Morocco	3: 37.08
5	Shane Healy	Ireland	3: 37.28
6th	Branko Zorko	Croatia	3: 37.35
7th	Mohamed Suleiman	Qatar	3: 37.70
8th	Mickael Damian	France	3: 39.21
9	Jason Pyrah	United States	3: 39.91
10	Antonio Travassos	Portugal	3: 42.01
11	Martin Johns	New Zealand	3: 44.91
12	Hussain Riyaz	Maldives	4: 15.14

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3: 37.66
2	William Tanui	Kenya	3: 37.72
3	Abdelkader Chékhémani	France	3: 37.81
4th	Isaac Viciosa	Spain	3: 37.93
5	Luís Feiteira	Portugal	3: 38.09
6th	Marcus O'Sullivan	Ireland	3: 38.16
7th	Peter Philipp	Switzerland	3: 41.60
8th	Werner Edler-Muhr	Austria	3: 45.02
9	Alexis Sharangabo	Rwanda	3: 46.52
10	Ali Mabruk Ezayedi	Libya	3: 51.49
DNF	Graham Hood	Canada

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Fermín Cacho	Spain	3: 39.84
2	Paul McMullen	United States	3: 39.94
3	Christophe Impens	Belgium	3: 40.16
4th	Anthony Whiteman	Great Britain	3: 40.74
5	Andrei Loginow	Russia	3: 40.99
6th	Dieudonné Kwizera	Burundi	3: 41.45
7th	Ahmed Krama	Algeria	3: 42.09
8th	Bahadur Prasad	India	3: 46.16
9	Eric Dubus	France	3: 47.01
10	Thomas Ebner	Austria	3: 48.38
11	Paul Cleary	Australia	3: 52.85
12	Selwyn Kole	Solomon Islands	4: 03.44

Semifinals

August 1, 1996, from 7:55 p.m.

From the two semi-finals, 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 runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Noureddine Morceli	Algeria	3: 32.88
2	Fermín Cacho	Spain	3: 33.12
3	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 33.30
4th	William Tanui	Kenya	3: 33.57
5	Laban Rotich	Kenya	3: 33.73
6th	Driss Maazouzi	Morocco	3: 34.35
7th	John Mayock	United States	3: 34.55
8th	Abdelkader Chékhémani	France	3: 34.84
9	Branko Zorko	Croatia	3: 35.14
10	Balázs Tölgyesi	Hungary	3: 35.57
11	Luís Feiteira	Portugal	3: 40.31
12	Niall Bruton	Ireland	3: 42.88

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3: 35.29
2	Stephen Kipkorir	Kenya	3: 35.53
3	Ali Hakimi	Tunisia	3: 35.91
4th	Mohamed Suleiman	Qatar	3: 36.01
5	Marko Koers	Netherlands	3: 36.06
6th	Isaac Viciosa	Spain	3: 36.11
7th	Anthony Whiteman	Great Britain	3: 36.11
8th	Christophe Impens	Belgium	3: 37.64
9	Paul McMullen	United States	3: 37.81
10	Reyes Estévez	Spain	3: 39.44
11	Shane Healy	Ireland	3: 39.81
12	Kevin McKay	Great Britain	3: 43.61

final

The Dutchman Marko Koers was Olympic seventh

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Noureddine Morceli	Algeria	3: 35.78
2	Fermín Cacho	Spain	3: 36.40
3	Stephen Kipkorir	Kenya	3: 36.72
4th	Laban Rotich	Kenya	3: 37.39
5	William Tanui	Kenya	3: 37.42
6th	Abdi Bile	Somalia	3: 38.03
7th	Marko Koers	Netherlands	3: 38.18
8th	Ali Hakimi	Tunisia	3: 38.19
9	Mohamed Suleiman	Qatar	3: 38.26
10	Driss Maazouzi	Morocco	3: 39.65
11	John Mayock	Great Britain	3: 40.18
12	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3: 40.75

August 3, 1996, 7:50 p.m.

All three Kenyans and two Moroccans had qualified for the final. They ran against one participant each from Algeria, Qatar, the Netherlands, Somalia, Spain, Tunisia and Great Britain.

The favorite was the reigning world champion and world record holder Noureddine Morceli from Algeria, who suffered a bitter defeat in 1992 when he was also clearly favored and had to be satisfied with seventh place. His toughest opponents here were the Spanish Olympic champion from 1992 Fermín Cacho and the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj. Third place from Barcelona , Mohamed Suleiman from Qatar, was also in the final. However, this was no longer quite the level of performance of previous years. Another candidate for a medal would have been Vénuste Niyongabo from Burundi, who competed over 5000 meters and renounced the 1500 meters on the same day - a good decision from his point of view, because he became the 5000 meter Olympic champion.

In the final, the pace was slow, with the Kenyans leading the field for two laps. The first 400 meters were run in 1: 01.03 min, the second in 1: 00.60 min. At 900 meters, Morceli took the lead and now accelerated the pace. He no longer wanted to make the same mistake as he did four years ago and to wait too long. So he went down in Barcelona against strong runners. The third lap was covered in 55.49 s. Morceli ran the race from the front, Cacho and El Guerrouj followed him, behind them there was already a gap. Shortly before the start of the last lap, El Guerrouj fell in second place. He was able to get up and finish the race, but finished last. Cacho was able to avoid his own fall, but now lost contact with the Algerian who was unleashed. The Spaniard narrowed the gap a little, but could no longer close the gap. Before the finish curve, the field was spread out. Abdi Bile from Somalia was third, the Kenyan Stephen Kipkorir fourth. So it went to the home straight. Bile fell back three places in the last hundred meters. Bronze went to the Kenyan Stephen Kipkorir, followed by his compatriots Laban Rotich and William Tanui.

Noureddine Morceli was the first Algerian Olympic champion over 1500 meters.

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 33f

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed February 26, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , Athletics Results: p. 76f, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on February 26, 2018

Video

• Men's 1500m Final Atlanta Olympics 1996 , posted June 22, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed February 26, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 670 , accessed on February 26, 2018
2. ↑ Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Athletics results: p. 76, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on February 26, 2018 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Results athletics: p. 77, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on February 26, 2018