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

Men's 800 metres at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Venue	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Dates	3 August 1984 (heats) 4 August 1984 (quarter-finals) 5 August 1984 (semi-finals) 6 August 1984 (final)
Competitors	69 from 56 nations
Winning time	1:43.00 OR
Medalists
Joaquim Cruz  Brazil Sebastian Coe  Great Britain Earl Jones  United States

These are the official results of the Men's 800 metres event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. The event took place between 3 and 6 August.

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.

Medalists

Gold	Joaquim Cruz  Brazil
Silver	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain
Bronze	Earl Jones  United States

Abbreviations

Q	automatic qualification
q	qualification by rank
DNS	did not start
NM	no mark
OR	olympic record
WR	world record
AR	area record
NR	national record
PB	personal best
SB	season best

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics.

World Record	1:41.73	Sebastian Coe	Florence (ITA)	June 10, 1981
Olympic Record	1:43.50	Alberto Juantorena	Montreal (CAN)	July 25, 1976

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

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	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	DQ
	4	Kim Bok-joo	South Korea	DQ
	7	Moussa Daweye	Niger	DQ

Quarterfinals

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.	Edwin Koech (KEN)	1:44.74
2.	Donato Sabia (ITA)	1:44.90
3.	Agberto Guimarães (BRA)	1:45.18
4.	Peter Elliott (GBR)	1:45.49
5.	Faouzi Lahbi (MAR)	1:45.67
6.	Babacar Niang (SEN)	1:45.71
7.	Sotirios Moutsanas (GRE)	1:46.34
–	Colomán Trabado (ESP)	DNF

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.	Billy Konchellah (KEN)	1:46.15
2.	Omar Khalifa (SUD)	1:46.33
3.	Sebastian Coe (GBR)	1:46.75
4.	José Luiz Barbosa (BRA)	1:46.87
5.	John Marshall (USA)	1:47.18
6.	Riccardo Materazzi (ITA)	1:47.90
7.	Ahmed Belkessam (ALG)	1:48.11
8.	Marco Mayr (SUI)	1:48.30

RANK	HEAT 3	TIME
1.	Joaquim Cruz (BRA)	1:44.84
2.	Steve Ovett (GBR)	1:45.72
3.	Johnny Gray (USA)	1:45.82
4.	William Wuycke (VEN)	1:46.17
5.	Abdi Bile (SOM)	1:46.49
6.	Owen Hamilton (JAM)	1:46.74
7.	Pat Scammel (AUS)	1:47.90
8.	Bruce Roberts (CAN)	1:49.72

RANK	HEAT 4	TIME
1.	Earl Jones (USA)	1:45.44
2.	Hans-Peter Ferner (FRG)	1:45.52
3.	Juma Ndiwa (KEN)	1:45.59
4.	Moussa Fall (SEN)	1:45.71
5.	Mohamed Alouini (TUN)	1:45.78
6.	Marcus O'Sullivan (IRL)	1:46.21
7.	Oslen Barr (GUY)	1:46.97
8.	Philippe Dupont (FRA)	1:48.95

Semifinals

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.	Joaquim Cruz (BRA)	1:43.82
2.	Edwin Koech (KEN)	1:44.12
3.	Earl Jones (USA)	1:44.51
4.	Steve Ovett (GBR)	1:44.81
5.	Omar Khalifa (SUD)	1:44.87
6.	Moussa Fall (SEN)	1:45.03
7.	William Wuycke (VEN)	1:47.32
–	Peter Elliott (GBR)	DNF

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.	Sebastian Coe (GBR)	1:45.51
2.	Billy Konchellah (KEN)	1:45.67
3.	Johnny Gray (USA)	1:45.82
4.	Donato Sabia (ITA)	1:45.96
5.	Hans-Peter Ferner (FRG)	1:46.16
6.	Agberto Guimarães (BRA)	1:46.65
7.	Juma Ndiwa (KEN)	1:48.06
8.	José Luiz Barbosa (BRA)	1:48.70

Final

RANK	FINAL	TIME
	Joaquim Cruz (BRA)	1:43.00
	Sebastian Coe (GBR)	1:43.64
	Earl Jones (USA)	1:43.83
4.	Billy Konchellah (KEN)	1:44.03
5.	Donato Sabia (ITA)	1:44.53
6.	Edwin Koech (KEN)	1:44.86
7.	Johnny Gray (USA)	1:47.89
8.	Steve Ovett (GBR)	1:52.28

See also

• 1982 Men's European Championships 800 metres (Athens)
• 1983 Men's World Championships 800 metres (Helsinki)
• 1984 Men's Friendship Games 800 metres (Moscow)
• 1986 Men's European Championships 800 metres (Stuttgart)

External links

• Results
• Results