Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

Men's 800 metres at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	14–16 October
Competitors	47 from 32 nations
Medalists
Peter Snell   New Zealand   Bill Crothers   Canada   Wilson Kiprugut   Kenya

Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The men's 800 metres was the middle of the seven men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. It was held on 14 October, 15 October, and 16 October 1964. 47 athletes from 32 nations entered, with 1 not starting the first round. The first round was held on 14 October, with the semifinals on 15 October and the final on 16 October.

Results

First round

The top four runners in each of the 6 heats advanced.

First round, heat 1

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:47.8
2	Tom Farrell	United States	1:48.6
3	Valery Bulyshev	Soviet Union	1:48.6
4	Joseph Lambrechts	Belgium	1:48.9
5	Francis Chatelet	France	1:48.9
6	Ebrahim Yazdanpanah	Iran	1:54.7
7	Hugo Walser	Liechtenstein	1:57.5
8	Nipon Pensuvabharp	Thailand	1:58.8

First round, heat 2

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Dieter Bogatzki	United Team of Germany	1:50.3
2	Stig Lindback	Sweden	1:50.8
3	Chris Carter	Great Britain	1:51.0
4	Pekka Juutilainen	Finland	1:51.0
5	Neville Myton	Jamaica	1:52.4
6	Michel Medinger	Luxembourg	1:52.6
7	Amarsanaa Dulam	Mongolia	1:56.3
8	Anar Khan	Pakistan	1:56.4

First round, heat 3

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Manfred Kinder	United Team of Germany	1:49.5
2	Ahmed Issa	Chad	1:49.7
3	Derek George McCleane	Ireland	1:49.9
4	Rein Telp	Soviet Union	1:50.0
5	Peter Francis	Kenya	1:50.1
6	Morgan Austin Groth	United States	1:51.4
7	José Neira	Colombia	1:55.6
8	R. Subramaniam	Malaysia	1:58.5

First round, heat 4

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1:49.0
2	Jerome Francis Siebert	United States	1:49.2
3	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1:49.2
4	Abram Krivosheev	Soviet Union	1:49.5
5	Graham Alan Dean	Great Britain	1:49.6
6	Chung Kyo Mo	South Korea	1:51.8
7	Don Bertoia	Canada	1:52.2
8	Sebsibe Mamo	Ethiopia	1:52.8

First round, heat 5

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	John Peter Boulter	Great Britain	1:48.9
2	George E. Kerr	Jamaica	1:48.9
3	Tony Blue	Australia	1:49.7
4	Manfred Matuschewski	United Team of Germany	1:50.0
5	Noel Carroll	Ireland	1:51.1
6	Rolf Jelinek	Switzerland	1:54.6
—	Amos Gilad	Israel	Did not finish[1]

First round, heat 6

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	William Crothers	Canada	1:49.3
2	Maurice Lurot	France	1:49.8
3	Morimoto Mamoru	Japan	1:49.9
4	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1:49.9
5	Francesco Bianchi	Italy	1:50.2
6	Paul Boekaens	Belgium	1:50.9
7	Patrick Field	Hong Kong	1:54.0
8	Mohamed Hassan Chabbanga	Tanganyika	1:54.9

Semifinals

The top two runners in each of the three semifinals qualified for the final, as did the two runners with the fastest times from among the 3rd-8th spots across all of the semifinals.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1:46.9
2	Jerome Francis Siebert	United States	1:47.0
3	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1:47.0
4	Manfred Matuschewski	United Team of Germany	1:47.3
5	Valery Bulyshev	Soviet Union	1:47.5
6	Morimoto Mamoru	Japan	1:47.7
7	Maurice Lurot	France	1:49.7
8	Stig Lindback	Sweden	1:49.8

Semifinal 2

Kerr and Kiprugut both crossed the finish line in 1:46.1, breaking the old Olympic record of 1:46.3.

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	George E. Kerr	Jamaica	1:46.1 OR
2	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:46.1 OR
3	Dieter Bogatzki	United Team of Germany	1:46.9
4	John Peter Boulter	Great Britain	1:47.1
5	Rudolf Klaban	Austria	1:47.4
6	Abram Krivosheev	Soviet Union	1:47.5
7	Derek George McCleane	Ireland	1:48.4
8	Pekka Juutilainen	Finland	1:50.3

Semifinal 3

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	William Crothers	Canada	1:47.3
2	Tom Farrell	United States	1:47.8
3	Manfred Kinder	United Team of Germany	1:47.9
4	Chris Carter	Great Britain	1:49.1
5	Rein Telp	Soviet Union	1:49.1
6	Ahmed Issa	Chad	1:49.4
7	Tony Blue	Australia	1:49.6
8	Joseph Lambrechts	Belgium	1:52.8

Final

No fewer than four runners broke the Olympic record that had been set in the semifinals, including the two runners that had set it. Despite the record performances by the other three runners, defending Olympic champion and world record holder Peter Snell still won by half a second to take the gold medal and set the new Olympic record at 1:45.1.

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1:45.1 OR
2	William Crothers	Canada	1:45.6
3	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:45.9
4	George E. Kerr	Jamaica	1:45.9
5	Tom Farrell	United States	1:46.6
6	Jerome Francis Siebert	United States	1:47.0
7	Dieter Bogatzki	United Team of Germany	1:47.2
8	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1:50.5

References

• Official Report