# Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

The men's 1,500m metres was an event at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union. The final was held on Friday 1 August 1980. Forty athletes from 29 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by 0.4 seconds by Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, the nation's first championship in the event since back-to-back wins surrounding World War I in 1912 and 1920, and first medal of any color since 1932. East Germany took its first medal in the 1500 metres since starting to compete separately, with Jürgen Straub's silver.

## Background

This was the 19th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the 1976 finalists returned, with the American-led boycott keeping out defending champion John Walker of New Zealand as well as top American runner Steve Scott. Those two would have been strong challengers, but a British pair would have been co-favorites anyway. The world record was shared by Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, with Coe having a slightly faster time before the rounding required by the rules of the time. The British Olympic Association did not join the boycott, so Ovett and Coe raced in Moscow.
Benin, Botswana, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Syria, Vietnam, and Zambia each made their first appearance in the event. Great Britain and France each made their 17th appearance, most of those competing in 1980, though still one fewer than the United States (which had had runners in each of the 18 previous 1500 metres competitions).

## Competition format

The competition was again three rounds (used previously in 1952 and since 1964). The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1964 was used for both the first round and semifinals. The 9-man semifinals and finals from 1976 were retained.
There were four heats in the first round, each with 10 or 11 runners (before withdrawals). The top four runners in each heat, along with the next two fastest overall, advanced to the semifinals. The 18 semifinalists were divided into two semifinals, each with 9 runners. The top four men in each semifinal, plus the fastest fifth-placer, advanced to the 9-man final.

## Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics.
| World record | Sebastian Coe (GBR) | 3:32.1 | Zürich, Switzerland | 15 August 1979 |
| Olympic record | Kip Keino (KEN) | 3:34.9 | Mexico City, Mexico | 20 October 1968 |
No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

## Schedule

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Wednesday, 30 July 1980 | 17:10 | Round 1 |
| Thursday, 31 July 1980 | 21:00 | Semifinals |
| Friday, 1 August 1980 | 17:30 | Final |

## Results
### Round 1
#### Heat 1

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | José Marajo | France | 3:43.9 | Q |
| 2 | Mehdi Aidet | Algeria | 3:43.9 | Q |
| 3 | Dragan Zdravković | Yugoslavia | 3:44.0 | Q |
| 4 | Steve Cram | Great Britain | 3:44.1 | Q |
| 5 | Pavel Yakovlev | Soviet Union | 3:44.2 | |
| 6 | José Manuel Abascal | Spain | 3:44.7 | |
| 7 | Mopeli Molapo | Lesotho | 3:55.5 | |
| 8 | Khaled Khalifa Al-Shammari | Kuwait | 3:57.6 | |
| 9 | Vicente Santos | Mozambique | 3:58.7 | |
| — | Filbert Bayi | Tanzania | DNS | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Andreas Busse | East Germany | 3:44.3 | Q |
| 2 | Vitaliy Tyshchenko | Soviet Union | 3:44.4 | Q |
| 3 | Jozef Plachý | Czechoslovakia | 3:44.4 | Q |
| 4 | Alexandre Gonzalez | France | 3:44.6 | Q |
| 5 | Pierre Délèze | Switzerland | 3:44.8 | |
| 6 | Haile Zeru | Ethiopia | 3:45.7 | |
| 7 | Abderrahmane Morceli | Algeria | 3:46.0 | |
| 8 | Sant Kumar | India | 3:55.6 | |
| 9 | Ishmael Mhaladi | Botswana | 3:59.1 | |
| 10 | George Branche | Sierra Leone | 4:03.9 | |
| 11 | Damien Degboe | Benin | 4:15.3 | |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Vittorio Fontanella | Italy | 3:40.1 | Q |
| 2 | Sebastian Coe | Great Britain | 3:40.1 | Q |
| 3 | Antti Loikkanen | Finland | 3:40.5 | Q |
| 4 | José Luis González | Spain | 3:40.9 | Q |
| 5 | João Campos | Portugal | 3:41.3 | q |
| 6 | Ray Flynn | Ireland | 3:42.0 | |
| 7 | Nigusse Bekele | Ethiopia | 3:45.8 | |
| 8 | Archfell Musango | Zambia | 3:53.7 | |
| 9 | Tisbite Rakotoarisoa | Madagascar | 3:55.9 | |
| 10 | Lê Quang Khải | Vietnam | 4:06.8 | |

#### Heat 4

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Steve Ovett | Great Britain | 3:36.8 | Q |
| 2 | Jürgen Straub | East Germany | 3:37.0 | Q |
| 3 | Robert Nemeth | Austria | 3:38.3 | Q |
| 4 | Vladimir Malozemlin | Soviet Union | 3:38.7 | Q |
| 5 | Mirosław Żerkowski | Poland | 3:39.2 | q |
| 6 | Kassa Balcha | Ethiopia | 3:43.1 | |
| 7 | Jón Didriksson | Iceland | 3:44.4 | |
| 8 | Derradji Harek | Algeria | 3:45.3 | |
| 9 | Marzouk Mabrouk | Libya | 3:54.3 | |
| 10 | Mohamed Makhlouf | Syria | 4:00.4 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Steve Ovett | Great Britain | 3:43.1 | Q |
| 2 | Dragan Zdravković | Yugoslavia | 3:43.4 | Q |
| 3 | Andreas Busse | East Germany | 3:43.5 | Q |
| 4 | Steve Cram | Great Britain | 3:43.6 | Q |
| 5 | Vladimir Malozemlin | Soviet Union | 3:43.6 | |
| 6 | Antti Loikkanen | Finland | 3:44.0 | |
| 7 | João Campos | Portugal | 3:44.4 | |
| 8 | Alex Gonzalez | France | 3:44.7 | |
| 9 | Mehdi Aidet | Algeria | 3:44.9 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Sebastian Coe | Great Britain | 3:39.4 | Q |
| 2 | Jürgen Straub | East Germany | 3:39.4 | Q |
| 3 | José Marajo | France | 3:39.6 | Q |
| 4 | Vittorio Fontanella | Italy | 3:40.1 | Q |
| 5 | Jozef Plachý | Czechoslovakia | 3:40.4 | q |
| 6 | Robert Nemeth | Austria | 3:40.8 | |
| 7 | Vitaliy Tyshchenko | Soviet Union | 3:41.5 | |
| 8 | José Luis González | Spain | 3:42.6 | |
| 9 | Mirosław Żerkowski | Poland | 3:48.2 | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time |
| | Sebastian Coe | Great Britain | 3:38.4 |
| | Jürgen Straub | East Germany | 3:38.8 |
| | Steve Ovett | Great Britain | 3:39.0 |
| 4 | Andreas Busse | East Germany | 3:40.2 |
| 5 | Vittorio Fontanella | Italy | 3:40.4 |
| 6 | Jozef Plachý | Czechoslovakia | 3:40.7 |
| 7 | José Marajo | France | 3:41.5 |
| 8 | Steve Cram | Great Britain | 3:42.0 |
| 9 | Dragan Zdravković | Yugoslavia | 3:43.1 |