# Athletics at the 1979 Summer Universiade – Men's 800 metres

The men's 800 metres event at the 1979 Summer Universiade was held at the Estadio Olimpico Universitario in Mexico City on 11, 12 and 13 September 1979.

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Evans White United States | Garry Cook Great Britain | Hans-Peter Ferner West Germany |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Evans White | United States | 1:51.36 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Agberto Guimarães | Brazil | 1:51.82 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Thomas Wilking | West Germany | 1:52.03 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Abderrahmane Morceli | Algeria | 1:52.44 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Robert Nemeth | Austria | 1:52.63 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Roger Milhau | France | 1:52.63 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Binko Kolev | Bulgaria | 1:52.74 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Philippe Dupont | France | 1:52.75 | q |
| 9 | 4 | Garry Cook | Great Britain | 1:52.87 | q |
| 10 | 2 | Hans-Peter Ferner | West Germany | 1:52.91 | Q |
| 11 | 2 | Chum Darvall | Australia | 1:53.17 | q |
| 12 | 3 | Charles Borromeo | India | 1:53.20 | q |
| 13 | 1 | Víctor Ibáñez | Mexico | 1:53.40 | q |
| 14 | 5 | Adomo Corradini | Italy | 1:53.41 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | David Belyon | Kenya | 1:53.60 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Ángel Gil | Mexico | 1:53.70 | |
| 17 | 5 | Scott Clark | United States | 1:53.82 | Q |
| 18 | 1 | Khaled Hussein | Kuwait | 1:54.03 | |
| 19 | 5 | Roger Soler | Peru | 1:54.32 | |
| 20 | 1 | Leonard Smith | Jamaica | 1:55.00 | |
| 21 | 5 | John Bowden | New Zealand | 1:55.02 | |
| 22 | 1 | Jeptham Karingo | Kenya | 1:55.74 | |
| 23 | 5 | Jorge Camacho | Costa Rica | 1:56.85 | |
| 24 | 4 | Kossivi Attikpo | Togo | 1:57.32 | |
| 25 | 3 | Yabaty Agbéré | Togo | 1:57.74 | |
| 26 | 5 | Abdallah Mohammed | Saudi Arabia | 2:00.13 | |
| 27 | 4 | Miguel Banegas | Honduras | 2:00.92 | |
| 28 | 3 | Raúl Campos | Peru | 2:02.41 | |
| 29 | 5 | John Erysthee | Saint Lucia | 2:03.30 | |
| 30 | 2 | Orlando Ruano | Guatemala | 2:05.10 | |
| 31 | 4 | Mohamed Khalil | Saudi Arabia | 2:05.70 | |
| 32 | 3 | Jean-Louis Pellegrin | Mauritius | 2:06.42 | |
| 33 | 5 | Francisco King | Guatemala | 2:07.88 | |
| 34 | 2 | Edwin Attard | Malta | 2:10.16 | |
| 35 | 1 | Theodore Muziwakh Khumalo | Swaziland | 2:17.21 | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Evans White | United States | 1:50.02 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Roger Milhau | France | 1:50.08 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Garry Cook | Great Britain | 1:50.37 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Thomas Wilking | West Germany | 1:50.75 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Robert Nemeth | Austria | 1:50.94 | |
| 6 | 2 | Agberto Guimarães | Brazil | 1:51.31 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Abderrahmane Morceli | Algeria | 1:51.36 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | Philippe Dupont | France | 1:51.76 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | Hans-Peter Ferner | West Germany | 1:51.78 | Q |
| 10 | 2 | Binko Kolev | Bulgaria | 1:51.80 | |
| 11 | 1 | Charles Borromeo | India | 1:51.92 | |
| 12 | 1 | David Belyon | Kenya | 1:51.92 | |
| 13 | 2 | Chum Darvall | Australia | 1:51.99 | |
| 14 | 2 | Scott Clark | United States | 1:52.12 | |
| 15 | 1 | Víctor Ibáñez | Mexico | 1:52.54 | |
| | 2 | Adomo Corradini | Italy | ? | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time |
| | Evans White | United States | 1:48.87 |
| | Garry Cook | Great Britain | 1:49.50 |
| | Hans-Peter Ferner | West Germany | 1:49.77 |
| 4 | Abderrahmane Morceli | Algeria | 1:49.89 |
| 5 | Philippe Dupont | France | 1:51.84 |
| 6 | Thomas Wilking | West Germany | 1:54.45 |
| | Roger Milhau | France | DNF |
| | Agberto Guimarães | Brazil | DNF |