Olympic Summer Games 2012 / Athletics - 800 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	55 athletes from 45 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium London
Competition phase	August 6, 2012 (preliminary round) August 7, 2012 (semi-finals) August 9, 2012 (final)
Medalist David Lekuta Rudisha ( KEN )   Nijel Amos ( BOT )   Timothy Kitum ( KEN )

The men's 800-meter run at the 2012 London Olympics was held on August 6, 7 and 9, 2012 at the London Olympic Stadium. 55 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Kenyan David Lekuta Rudisha , who won in a new world record time ahead of Nijel Amos from Botswana. The bronze medal went to the Kenyan Timothy Kitum .

Sören Ludolph started for Germany , who was eliminated in the preliminary round.

Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion	Wilfred Bungei ( Kenya )	1: 44.65 min	Beijing 2008
World Champion	David Lekuta Rudisha ( Kenya )	1: 43.91 min	Daegu 2011
European champion	Yuri Borsakowski ( Russia )	1: 48.61 min	Helsinki 2012
Central America and Caribbean champions	Andy González ( Cuba )	1: 48.15 min	Mayagüez 2011
South America champion	Rafith Rodríguez ( Colombia )	1: 51.38 min	Buenos Aires 2011
Asian champion	Mohamed al-Azemi ( Kuwait )	1: 46.14 min	Kobe 2011
African champions	Taoufik Makhloufi ( Algeria )	1: 43.88 min	Porto-Novo 2012
Oceania Champion	Adrien Kela ( New Caledonia )	1: 55.82 min	Cairns 2012

Existing records

Olympic champion
David Lekuta Rudisha from Kenya

World record	David Lekuta Rudisha ( Kenya )	1: 41.01 min	Rieti , Italy	August 29, 2010
Olympic record	Vebjørn Rodal ( Norway )	1: 42.58 min	Atlanta Final , USA	July 31, 1996

Note:
All times in this post are given according to London local time ( UTC ± 0 ).

Qualification basics

Each NOK could nominate up to three athletes who ran the qualifying time of 1: 45.60  minutes (A standard) set by the IAAF in a competition held during the qualifying time. Should no athlete from a NOC achieve the A standard, the NOC concerned could nominate an athlete who had achieved the B standard of 1: 46.30  minutes. Regardless of the run times, the NOKs whose athletes had neither met the A nor the B standard could nominate an athlete.

Prelims

Seven preliminary runs were carried out. The first three athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the three 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. Marcin Lewandowski subsequently qualified for the next round by referee decision after he was stumbled by a bump from Muhamed Al-Azemi, who was disqualified for it.

In race five, the Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi gave up his race prematurely after 150 meters, whereupon he was disqualified by the IAAF for the rest of the games. The reason given was that Makhloufi had made no effort to conduct the race properly. The athlete then presented a medical certificate confirming that he had knee problems. The disqualification was lifted as a result and Makhloufi was able to deny the 1500-meter run , in which he reached the final.

With 1: 45.51 minutes, Abubaker Kaki from Sudan ran the fastest time of all heats in race three. The slowest time to reach the semifinals was 1: 48.27 min for the Spaniard Kevin López in race five.

Forward 1

August 6, 2012, 10:50 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Nijel Amos	Botswana	1: 45.90
2	Fabiano Pecanha	Brazil	1: 46.29
3	Luis Alberto Marco	Spain	1: 46.86
4th	Khadevis Robinson	United States	1: 47.17
5	Marcin Lewandowski	Poland	1: 47.64	qualified by a referee's decision after a disability
6th	Ivan Tukhtachov	Russia	1: 49.77
7th	Derek Mandell	Guam	1: 58.94
DSQ	Mohamed Al-Azemi	Kuwait		IAAF Rule 163.2 - Disability

Forward 2

August 6, 2012, 10:58 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	David Lekuta Rudisha	Kenya	1: 45.90
2	Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla	Qatar	1: 46.37
3	Andrew Osagie	Great Britain	1: 46.42
4th	Wesley Vázquez	Puerto Rico	1: 46.45
5	Jeffrey Riseley	Australia	1: 46.99
6th	Ismail Ahmed Ismail	Sudan	1: 48.79
7th	Anise ananenka	Belarus	1: 49.61
8th	Kieng Samorn	Cambodia	1: 55.26

Forward 3

The German Sören Ludolph is eliminated as seventh in his preliminary run

August 6, 2012, 11:06 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Abubaker persimmon	Sudan	1: 45.51
2	Timothy Kitum	Kenya	1: 45.72
3	Abdulaziz Ladan	Saudi Arabia	1: 46.09
4th	Andy González	Cuba	1: 46.24
5	Gareth Warburton	Great Britain	1: 46.97
6th	Tamás Kazi	Hungary	1: 47.10
7th	Sören Ludolph	Germany	1: 48.57
8th	Arnold Sorina	Vanuatu	1: 54.29

Forward 4

August 6, 2012, 11:14 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Nick Symmonds	United States	1: 45.91
2	Geoff Harris	Canada	1: 45.97
3	Adam Kszczot	Poland	1: 45.99
4th	Pierre-Ambroise Bosse	France	1: 46.03
5	Yuri Borsakovsky	Russia	1: 46.29
6th	Andreas Bube	Denmark	1: 46.40
7th	Manuel António	Angola	1: 52.54
DSQ	Brice Etès	Monaco		IAAF Rule 163.3 a - Violation of the lane marking

Forward 5

August 6, 2012, 11:22 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Hamada Mohamed	Egypt	1: 48.05
2	Sajjad Moradi	Iran	1: 48.23
3	Kevin López	Spain	1: 48.27
4th	Masato Yokota	Japan	1: 48.48
5	Michael Rimmer	Great Britain	1: 49.05
6th	Moussa Camara	Mali	1: 51.36
7th	Edgar Cortez	Nicaragua	1: 58.99
DNF	Taoufik Makhloufi	Algeria

Forward 6

August 6, 2012, 11:30 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Mohammed Aman	Egypt	1: 47.34
2	Antony Chemut	Kenya	1: 47.42
3	Antonio Manuel Reina	Spain	1: 47.44
4th	Rafith Rodríguez	Colombia	1: 47.70
5	Adnan Taess Akkar	Iraq	1: 47.83
6th	Amine El Manaoui	Morocco	1: 48.48
7th	Prince Moses Mumba	Zambia	1: 49.07
8th	Yerzhan Askarov	Kyrgyzstan	1: 59.56

Forward 7

August 6, 2012, 11:38 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Duane Solomon	United States	1: 46.05
2	Robert Lathouwers	Netherlands	1: 46.06
3	André Olivier	South Africa	1: 46.42
4th	Jakub Holuša	Czech Republic	1: 46.87
5	Julius Mutekanga	Uganda	1: 48.41
6th	Moise Joseph	Haiti	1: 48.46
7th	Benjamin Enzema	Equatorial Guinea	1: 57.47
DNS	Kléberson Davide	Brazil

Semifinals

There were three semi-finals. The first two 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.

Mohammed Aman from Ethiopia achieved the fastest semifinal time in race three with 1: 44.34 minutes. To reach the final, a time under 1:45 minutes had to be run. The slowest time was 1: 44.93 min for US American Duane Solomon in race three.

Run 1

August 7, 2012, 7:55 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Abubaker persimmon	Sudan	1: 44.51
2	Nijel Amos	Botswana	1: 44.54
3	Adam Kszczot	Poland	1: 45.34
4th	Antony Chemut	Kenya	1: 45.63
5	Robert Lathouwers	Netherlands	1: 45.85
6th	Luis Alberto Marco	Spain	1: 46.19
7th	Fabiano Pecanha	Brazil	1: 46.29
DSQ	Sajjad Moradi	Iran		IAAF Rule 163.3 a - Crossing the lane marking

Run 2

Marcin Lewandowski from Poland narrowly failed in the semi-finals

August 7, 2012, 8:04 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	David Lekuta Rudisha	Kenya	1: 44.35
2	Andrew Osagie	Great Britain	1: 44.74
3	Nick Symmonds	United States	1: 44.87
4th	Marcin Lewandowski	Poland	1: 45.08
5	Yuri Borsakovsky	Russia	1: 45.09
6th	Kevin López	Spain	1: 46.66
7th	Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla	Qatar	1: 47.52
8th	Hamada Mohamed	Egypt	1: 48.18
9	Andy González	Cuba	1: 53.46

Run 3

August 7, 2012, 8:13 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Mohammed Aman	Ethiopia	1: 44.34
2	Timothy Kitum	Kenya	1: 44.63
3	Duane Solomon	United States	1: 44.93
4th	Pierre-Ambroise Bosse	France	1: 45.10
5	André Olivier	South Africa	1: 45.44
6th	Antonio Manuel Reina	Spain	1: 45.84
7th	Geoff Harris	Canada	1: 46.14
8th	Abdulaziz Ladan	Saudi Arabia	1: 48.98

final

Scene from the finale:
Rudisha in front, Amos, Aman, Kaki and Kitum behind, Solomon on the right

August 9, 2012, 8:00 p.m.

In the final, two Kenyans and two Americans ran against one participant each from Ethiopia, Botswana, Great Britain and Sudan.

With his world record , the winner David Lekuta Rudisha was the first athlete to run the 800 meters under 1:41 minutes. He took the lead right from the start, led by a large margin after half of the track and also maintained his high pace on the second lap. He became Olympic champion in harmony and superiority.

With the silver medal, the reigning junior world champion Nijel Amos won the first Olympic medal for Botswana . He not only improved the Botswana national record, he also set a new junior world record.

The race is the fastest Olympic final to date. For the first time, all finalists ran times below 1:44 minutes. In addition, seven of the eight runners set personal bests. All finalists had with the achieved times here in 2008 in Beijing won the gold medal.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	David Lekuta Rudisha	Kenya	1: 40.91	WR
2	Nijel Amos	Botswana	1: 41.73	NR / JWR
3	Timothy Kitum	Kenya	1: 42.53
4th	Duane Solomon	United States	1: 42.82
5	Nick Symmonds	United States	1.42.95
6th	Mohammed Aman	Ethiopia	1.43.20	NO
7th	Abubaker persimmon	Sudan	1: 43.32
8th	Andrew Osagie	Great Britain	1: 43.77

Picture gallery

• 

  Silver medal:
  Nijel Amos from Botswana

• 

  The US-American Duane Solomon was Olympic champion

• 

  Nick Symmonds (USA) came in fifth

Web links

• SportsReference 800m , accessed September 10, 2018
• Official report , accessed September 10, 2018
• Results on the website of the IAAF World Athletics Federation (English), accessed on September 10, 2018

Video recordings

• Prelims on youtube.com, published August 6, 2012, accessed September 10, 2018
• Semi-finals on youtube.com, published August 7, 2012, accessed September 10, 2018
• Finale on youtube.com, published on August 9, 2012, accessed on September 10, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 669 , accessed on September 10, 2018
2. ↑ The Guardian, August 7, 2012 , accessed September 10, 2018
3. ↑ IAAF competition rules (PDF), page 73 , accessed on September 10, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b} IAAF competition rules, page 73 , accessed on September 10, 2018