Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates	20–24 August
Competitors	43 from 29 nations
Winning time	3:34.19
Medalists
Hicham El Guerrouj  Morocco Bernard Lagat  Kenya Rui Silva  Portugal

The men's 1500 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 20 to 24.

The first round comprised three heats with the first five gaining a direct qualification and then the next nine fastest across all heats progressing to the semifinals. The top five runners in each of the two semifinal heats moved on directly to the final, and they were immediately joined by the next two fastest from any of the semifinals.

World record holder Hicham El Guerrouj came into the race with a target on his back. Though El Guerrouj had won four straight World Championships, he had failed to win the previous Olympics, falling with a lap to go in his breakthrough year of 1996 and being beaten to the line in 2000 by the same Noah Ngeny who had chased El Guerrouj to the mile world record a year earlier. Ngeny was not back but bronze medalist Bernard Lagat was, seeking to finally beat El Guerrouj. Lagat had the potential assistance of two Kenyan teammates, but El Guerrouj also had his teammate Adil Kaouch make the final and Kaouch had previously sacrificed himself by acting as a pacesetter leading El Guerrouj to the 1999 and 2001 world titles. Because of the assistance, El Guerrouj's ability in a strategic race was suspect.

Off the line, the three Kenyan runners took the lead and formed a wall keeping the field behind as they slowed the pace, El Guerrouj could not run away from the start, the race would be strategic. With 500 metres to go, El Guerrouj worked his way to the front, with a line of kickers including Lagat, Reyes Estevez, Ivan Heshko and the unknown Mulugeta Wendimu lined up behind him. Down the backstretch, Lagat stayed a step behind El Guerrouj as other speedsters jockeyed for position and then fell back. From deep in the pack (dead last with less than 500 metres to go), Rui Silva was on the outside passing the others. Around the final turn, Lagat edged his way closer to El Guerrouj, pulling even just at the head of the stretch, with Silva gaining to just a step behind. By halfway down the home stretch, Lagat edged into the lead, but El Guerrouj did not go away, fighting back to take the win as Lagat gave up the fight a couple of steps before the line. After clearly running the fastest last lap, Silva was unable to make any further headway, celebrating his bronze medal as he finished.

Four days later, El Guerrouj outsprinted 10000 metres gold medalist Kenenisa Bekele to take the 5000 metres gold medal and never competed internationally again, officially retiring in 2006.

Records

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

World record	Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)	3:26.00	Rome, Italy	14 July 1998
Olympic record	Noah Ngeny (KEN)	3:32.07	Sydney, Australia	29 September 2000

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 1500 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 3:36.20 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 3:38.00 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 20 August 2004	19:40	Round 1
Sunday, 22 August 2004	21:50	Semifinals
Tuesday, 24 August 2004	23:40	Final

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next nine fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3:37.86	Q
2	Rui Silva	Portugal	3:37.98	Q
3	Álvaro Fernández	Spain	3:38.34	Q
4	Kamal Boulahfane	Algeria	3:38.59	Q
5	Isaac Kiprono Songok	Kenya	3:38.89	Q
6	Kevin Sullivan	Canada	3:39.30	q
7	Michal Šneberger	Czech Republic	3:39.68	q
8	James Nolan	Ireland	3:41.14	q
9	Wolfram Müller	Germany	3:46.75
10	Mounir Yemmouni	France	3:51.08
11	Grant Robison	United States	3:53.66
12	Roberto Mandje	Equatorial Guinea	4:03.37	NR
	Peter Roko Ashak	Sudan	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Reyes Estévez	Spain	3:39.71	Q
2	Bernard Lagat	Kenya	3:39.80	Q
3	Nick Willis	New Zealand	3:39.80	Q
4	Adil Kaouch	Morocco	3:39.88	Q
5	Mulugeta Wendimu	Ethiopia	3:39.96	Q
6	Gert-Jan Liefers	Netherlands	3:40.10	q
7	Hudson de Souza	Brazil	3:40.78	q
8	Johan Cronje	South Africa	3:40.99	q
9	Alan Webb	United States	3:41.25
10	Aleksandr Krivchonkov	Russia	3:41.37
11	Abdulrahman Suleiman	Qatar	3:42.00
12	Mohamed Khaldi	Algeria	3:42.47
13	Mehdi Baala	France	3:46.06

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Michael East	Great Britain	3:37.37	Q
2	Timothy Kiptanui	Kenya	3:37.71	Q
3	Ivan Heshko	Ukraine	3:37.78	Q
4	Rashid Ramzi	Bahrain	3:37.93	Q
5	Tarek Boukensa	Algeria	3:37.94	Q
6	Juan Carlos Higuero	Spain	3:38.36	q
7	Youssef Baba	Morocco	3:38.71	q
8	Manuel Damião	Portugal	3:39.94	q
9	Charlie Gruber	United States	3:41.73
10	Branko Zorko	Croatia	3:48.28
11	Dou Zhaobo	China	3:50.28
12	Neil Weare	Guam	4:05.86
13	Jimmy Anak Ahar	Brunei	4:14.11
	Samwel Mwera	Tanzania	DNS

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The top five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Adil Kaouch	Morocco	3:35.69	Q
2	Bernard Lagat	Kenya	3:35.84	Q
3	Gert-Jan Liefers	Netherlands	3:36.00	Q
4	Reyes Estévez	Spain	3:36.05	Q
5	Ivan Heshko	Ukraine	3:36.20	Q
6	Michael East	Great Britain	3:36.46	q
7	Isaac Kiprono Songok	Kenya	3:37.10	q
8	Manuel Damião	Portugal	3:37.16
9	Hudson de Souza	Brazil	3:38.83
10	James Nolan	Ireland	3:42.61
11	Rashid Ramzi	Bahrain	3:44.60
	Tarek Boukensa	Algeria	DNF

Semifinal 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3:40.87	Q
2	Rui Silva	Portugal	3:40.99	Q
3	Timothy Kiptanui	Kenya	3:41.04	Q
4	Mulugeta Wendimu	Ethiopia	3:41.14	Q
5	Kamal Boulahfane	Algeria	3:41.27	Q
6	Nick Willis	New Zealand	3:41.46
7	Álvaro Fernández	Spain	3:42.01
8	Juan Carlos Higuero	Spain	3:42.13
9	Kevin Sullivan	Canada	3:42.86
10	Youssef Baba	Morocco	3:42.96
11	Johan Cronje	South Africa	3:44.41
12	Michal Šneberger	Czech Republic	3:47.03

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	3:34.19
	Bernard Lagat	Kenya	3:34.30
	Rui Silva	Portugal	3:34.68
4	Timothy Kiptanui	Kenya	3:35.61
5	Ivan Heshko	Ukraine	3:35.82
6	Michael East	Great Britain	3:36.33
7	Reyes Estévez	Spain	3:36.63
8	Gert-Jan Liefers	Netherlands	3:37.17
9	Adil Kaouch	Morocco	3:38.26
10	Mulugeta Wendimu	Ethiopia	3:38.33
11	Kamal Boulahfane	Algeria	3:39.02
12	Isaac Kiprono Songok	Kenya	3:41.72

External links

• IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage