Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

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Men's 800 metres
at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
VenueLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Dates3 August 1984 (heats)
4 August 1984 (quarter-finals)
5 August 1984 (semi-finals)
6 August 1984 (final)
Competitors69 from 55 nations
Winning time1:43.00 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Joaquim Cruz
 Brazil
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Sebastian Coe
 Great Britain
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Earl Jones
 United States
← 1980
1988 →

The men's 800 metres event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California took place between 3 and 6 August.[1] Sixty-nine athletes from 55 nations competed.[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Joaquim Cruz of Brazil, the nation's first medal in the men's 800 metres. Sebastian Coe of Great Britain repeated his silver-medal performance from 1980, the eighth man to win two medals in the event.

Summary[]

With four notable front runners in the race the battle to the break was important. Edwin Koech on the far outside and Joaquim Cruz went out hard around the first turn, with Earl Jones and Johnny Gray to the inside. Cruz, Jones and Gray converged at the same spot, Gray getting the short end of the stick and suddenly losing ground to the back of the field, then Koech converged from the outside, closing the door on Cruz and Jones, with Cruz edging ahead of Jones as contact was made causing Cruz to jump 200 metres into the race. The lead group was marked by British rivals, defending champion Steve Ovett and world record holder Sebastian Coe. They held that order through the next 200 metres, only upset by Gray long striding along the outside up to Coe's shoulder. Gray's added speed seemed to force the leaders to run faster to stay ahead of him, while Ovett withered out the back of the field. With 200 to go Gray seemed to tighten up, frustrated that his hard effort only netted him fifth place. Through the turn, Cruz inched closer to Koech, still marked by Coe and Jones. When Cruz pounced coming off the turn, Koech wilted, outside of him Coe and Jones were in a shoulder to shoulder sprint battle. Cruz had won the war, sprinting away to a clear 5 metre victory. Coe was able to make a slight gain on Jones to take silver. Jones still held off a late charge by Billy Konchellah for bronze.

Background[]

This was the 20th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Three of the top four men from 1980 returned: gold medalist Steve Ovett and silver medalist Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, as well as fourth-place finisher Agberto Guimarães of Brazil. Coe (the world record holder) was a favorite, along with Guimarães's countryman Joaquim Cruz. Ovett had a respiratory illness and, while still strong in the event, was not at peak power.[2]

Of the 55 nations represented, 20 had never had a competitor in the men's 800 metres before: Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia, Grenada, Jordan, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Paraguay, Rwanda, San Marino, the Seychelles, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, the United Arab Emirates, North Yemen, and Zimbabwe all appeared in the event for the first time. Great Britain made its 19th appearance, most among all nations, having had no competitors in the event only in the 1904 Games in St. Louis.

Competition format[]

For only the second time, the 800 metres was run over four rounds (the first was in 1960); the number of runners had increased to 69 from 41 in 1980. The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1964 was used for the first round. There were nine first-round heats, each with 7 or 8 athletes; the top three runners in each heat as well as the next five fastest overall advanced to the semifinals. There were four quarterfinals, each of 8 athletes; the top four runners in each advanced to the semifinals. There were two semifinals with 8 athletes each; the top four runners in each semifinal advanced to the eight-man final.[2][3]

Records[]

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Sebastian Coe (GBR) 1:41.73 Florence, Italy 10 June 1981
Olympic record  Alberto Juantorena (CUB) 1:43.50 Montreal, Canada 25 July 1976

In the final Joaquim Cruz set a new Olympic record at 1:43.00.

Schedule[]

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)

Date Time Round
Friday, 3 August 1984 16:40 Round 1
Saturday, 4 August 1984 17:40 Quarterfinals
Sunday, 5 August 1984 18:05 Semifinals
Monday, 6 August 1984 17:50 Final

Results[]

Round 1[]

Rank Heat Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 5 Joaquim Cruz  Brazil 1:45.66 Q
2 2 Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:45.71 Q
3 2 Omer Khalifa  Sudan 1:45.81 Q
4 2 Colomán Trabado  Spain 1:46.00 Q
5 2 Riccardo Materazzi  Italy 1:46.03 q
6 9 Billy Konchellah  Kenya 1:46.27 Q
7 5 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:46.66 Q
8 8 Juma Ndiwa  Kenya 1:46.73 Q
9 2 Marcus O'Sullivan  Ireland 1:46.85 q
10 8 William Wuycke  Venezuela 1:46.88 Q
11 1 Babacar Niang  Senegal 1:46.90 Q
12 1 Abdi Bile  Somalia 1:46.92 Q
13 3 Owen Hamilton  Jamaica 1:46.95 Q
14 9 Peter Elliott  Great Britain 1:46.98 Q
15 1 Donato Sabia  Italy 1:47.04 Q
16 7 Edwin Koech  Kenya 1:47.11 Q
17 9 José Luíz Barbosa  Brazil 1:47.12 Q
18 6 Johnny Gray  United States 1:47.19 Q
19 8 Mohamed Alouini  Tunisia 1:47.20 Q
20 6 Pat Scammell  Australia 1:47.24 Q
21 1 Sotirios Moutsanas  Greece 1:47.32 q
22 6 Marco Mayr  Switzerland 1:47.36 Q
23 6 Ahmed Belkessam  Algeria 1:47.51 q
24 7 Hans-Peter Ferner  West Germany 1:47.55 Q
25 9 Bruce Roberts  Canada 1:47.56 q
26 5 Oslen Barr  Guyana 1:47.65 Q
27 7 Agberto Guimarães  Brazil 1:47.72 Q
28 8 Simon Hoogewerf  Canada 1:47.74
29 4 Earl Jones  United States 1:47.75 Q
30 4 Faouzi Lahbi  Morocco 1:47.81 Q
31 7 Mark Handelsman  Israel 1:47.90
32 3 Moussa Fall  Senegal 1:47.91 Q
33 3 John Marshall  United States 1:47.99 Q
34 5 Benjamín González  Spain 1:48.01
35 4 Philippe Dupont  France 1:48.09 Q
36 1 Joseph Ramotshabi  Botswana 1:48.17
37 5 Batulamai Rajakumar  Malaysia 1:48.19
38 3 Jama Aden  Somalia 1:48.64
39 2 Archfell Musango  Zambia 1:48.84
40 4 Axel Harries  West Germany 1:48.92
41 8 Taplumanei Jonga  Zimbabwe 1:49.59
42 3 Peter Pearless  New Zealand 1:49.95
43 5 Isaac Ganunga  Malawi 1:51.25
44 6 Meesaq Rizvi  Pakistan 1:51.29
45 9 Charles Borromeo  India 1:51.52
46 9 Dale Jones  Antigua and Barbuda 1:51.52
47 1 André Titos  Mozambique 1:51.73
48 5 Francisco Figueredo  Paraguay 1:52.22
49 1 Samuel Sawny  Grenada 1:53.08
50 8 Charlie Oliver  Solomon Islands 1:53.22
51 7 Jerry Molyneaux  British Virgin Islands 1:53.23
52 7 Jean-Marie Rudasingwa  Rwanda 1:53.23
53 5 Siegfried Cruden  Suriname 1:53.31
54 4 Mouteb Al-Faouri  Jordan 1:53.89
55 2 Leopoldo Acosta  Ecuador 1:54.06
56 3 Alberto López  Guatemala 1:54.19
57 6 William Amakye  Ghana 1:54.80
58 4 Ibrahim Aziz  United Arab Emirates 1:54.86
59 9 Peter Ceesay  The Gambia 1:55.35
60 9 Ousman Miangoto  Chad 1:56.02
61 1 Jodha Gurung  Nepal 1:56.72
62 2 Manlio Molinari  San Marino 1:57.09
63 8 Barakat Al-Sharji  Oman 2:00.38
64 6 Philip Sinon  Seychelles 2:04.89
65 8 Abdul Al-Ghadi  North Yemen 2:05.90
66 7 Bartolomé Esono Asumu  Equatorial Guinea 2:17.29
3 Vusie Dlamini  Swaziland DSQ
4 Kim Bok-joo  South Korea DSQ
7 Moussa Daweye  Niger DSQ

Quarterfinals[]

Quarterfinal 1[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Edwin Koech  Kenya 1:44.74 Q
2 Donato Sabia  Italy 1:44.90 Q
3 Agberto Guimarães  Brazil 1:45.18 Q
4 Peter Elliott  Great Britain 1:45.49 Q
5 Faouzi Lahbi  Morocco 1:45.67
6 Babacar Niang  Senegal 1:45.71
7 Sotirios Moutsanas  Greece 1:46.34
Colomán Trabado  Spain DNF

Quarterfinal 2[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Billy Konchellah  Kenya 1:46.15 Q
2 Omar Khalifa  Sudan 1:46.33 Q
3 Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:46.75 Q
4 José Luiz Barbosa  Brazil 1:46.87 Q
5 John Marshall  United States 1:47.18
6 Riccardo Materazzi  Italy 1:47.90
7 Ahmed Belkessam  Algeria 1:48.11
8 Marco Mayr  Switzerland 1:48.30

Quarterfinal 3[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Joaquim Cruz  Brazil 1:44.84 Q
2 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:45.72 Q
3 Johnny Gray  United States 1:45.82 Q
4 William Wuycke  Venezuela 1:46.17 Q
5 Abdi Bile  Somalia 1:46.49
6 Owen Hamilton  Jamaica 1:46.74
7 Pat Scammel  Australia 1:47.90
8 Bruce Roberts  Canada 1:49.72

Quarterfinal 4[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Earl Jones  United States 1:45.44 Q
2 Hans-Peter Ferner  West Germany 1:45.52 Q
3 Juma Ndiwa  Kenya 1:45.59 Q
4 Moussa Fall  Senegal 1:45.71 Q
5 Mohamed Alouini  Tunisia 1:45.78
6 Marcus O'Sullivan  Ireland 1:46.21
7 Oslen Barr  Guyana 1:46.97
8 Philippe Dupont  France 1:48.95

Semifinals[]

Semifinal 1[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Joaquim Cruz  Brazil 1:43.82 Q
2 Edwin Koech  Kenya 1:44.12 Q
3 Earl Jones  United States 1:44.51 Q
4 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:44.81 Q
5 Omar Khalifa  Sudan 1:44.87
6 Moussa Fall  Senegal 1:45.03
7 William Wuycke  Venezuela 1:47.32
Peter Elliott  Great Britain DNF

Semifinal 2[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:45.51 Q
2 Billy Konchellah  Kenya 1:45.67 Q
3 Johnny Gray  United States 1:45.82 Q
4 Donato Sabia  Italy 1:45.96 Q
5 Hans-Peter Ferner  West Germany 1:46.16
6 Agberto Guimarães  Brazil 1:46.65
7 Juma Ndiwa  Kenya 1:48.06
8 José Luiz Barbosa  Brazil 1:48.70

Final[]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Joaquim Cruz  Brazil 1:43.00 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:43.64
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Earl Jones  United States 1:43.83
4 Billy Konchellah  Kenya 1:44.03
5 Donato Sabia  Italy 1:44.53
6 Edwin Koech  Kenya 1:44.86
7 Johnny Gray  United States 1:47.89
8 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:52.28

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1984 Los Angeles Games: Men's 800 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "800 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  3. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 274–76.

External links[]

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