# 2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 1500 metres

The men's 1500 metres at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha from 3 to 6 October 2019. The winning margin was 2.12 seconds which as of 2024 remains the only time the men's 1,500 metres has been won by more than two seconds at these championships (the 1991 final was won by exactly two seconds).

## Summary

In modern history, championship races are slow strategic affairs where fast athletes are unwilling to sacrifice their medals by running a fast pace. Fast races happen in more controlled environments with planned pace setters at major European meets.
Timothy Cheruiyot didn't get the memo. From the gun, Cheruiyot and his Kenyan teammate Ronald Kwemoi went out hard, breaking away by 2 metres in the first 200. The guys who usually drop to the back realized this was serious and started scrambling to the front. Olympic gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz Jr. and silver medalist Taoufik Makhloufi formed a chase group 5 metres back, Jakob Ingebrigtsen leading the peloton another 5 metres back. Over the next lap, the chasers fell back to the peloton, the breakaway now 10 metres. Cheruiyot kept up the pressure, over the next half lap, Kwemoi fell off his back. By the bell, Kwemoi was back to the peloton, again led by Makhloufi. The next on the front were Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr. It appeared a more mature 23 year old Cheruiyot had learned from his fast early pace at the 2015 World Relays where he fell apart on the last lap. Here, there was no sign of letting up. Down the backstretch, coming from 9th place, Marcin Lewandowski ran around the outside of the pack, hitting Makhloufi's shoulder by the beginning of the final turn. The other competitors were already fully extended and couldn't make any dramatic moves. Cheruiyot crossed the finish line 17 metres ahead of Makhloufi. Lewandowski was able to stay a metre behind Makhloufi, trying to nudge ahead in vain at the finish line. The others fell off the back with only Ingebrigtsen remaining two metres behind Lewandowski and Jake Wightman yet another metre back.
While 3:29.26 was "only" the 57th best performance ever, it was the third fastest Olympic or World Championship performance, only bettered by the 1999 championships when the number 2 miler ever, Noah Ngeny chased world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj to the championship record, and unlike that race, this was done off the front, solo.

## Records

Before the competition records were as follows:
| World record | Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) | 3:26.00 | Rome, Italy | 14 July 1998 |
| Championship record | Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) | 3:27.65 | Sevilla, Spain | 24 August 1999 |
| World Leading | Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN) | 3:28.77 | Lausanne, Switzerland | 5 July 2019 |
| African Record | Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) | 3:26.00 | Rome, Italy | 14 July 1998 |
| Asian Record | Rashid Ramzi (BHR) | 3:29.14 | Rome, Italy | 14 July 2006 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | Bernard Lagat (USA) | 3:29.30 | Rieti, Italy | 28 August 2005 |
| South American Record | Hudson Santos de Souza (BRA) | 3:33.25 | Rieti, Italy | 28 August 2005 |
| European Record | Mo Farah (GBR) | 3:28.81 | Monaco | 19 July 2013 |
| Oceanian record | Nick Willis (NZL) | 3:29.66 | Monaco | 17 July 2015 |
The following records were set at the competition:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
| Polish | 3:31.46 | Marcin Lewandowski | POL | 6 Oct 2019 |
| Swedish | 3:33.70 | Kalle Berglund | SWE | 6 Oct 2019 |

## Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 3:36.00 or 3:53.10 for the mile.

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+3), was as follows:
| Date | Time | Round |
| 3 October | 22:00 | Heats |
| 4 October | 20:10 | Semi-finals |
| 6 October | 19:40 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

The first six in each heat (Q) and the next six fastest (q) qualified for the semi-finals.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Ayanleh Souleiman | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:36.16 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Taoufik Makhloufi | Algeria (ALG) | 3:36.18 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Kalle Berglund | Sweden (SWE) | 3:36.19 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Neil Gourley | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:36.31 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Craig Engels | United States (USA) | 3:36.35 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | Ronald Musagala | Uganda (UGA) | 3:36.54 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | Ronald Kwemoi | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.66 | q |
| 8 | 3 | Jesús Gómez | Spain (ESP) | 3:36.72 | q |
| 9 | 2 | Timothy Cheruiyot | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.82 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | Stewart McSweyn | Australia (AUS) | 3:36.88 | q |
| 11 | 2 | Josh Kerr | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:36.99 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | Ben Blankenship | United States (USA) | 3:37.13 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | Filip Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:37.26 | Q |
| 14 | 2 | Abdelaati Iguider | Morocco (MAR) | 3:37.44 | Q |
| 15 | 2 | Kevin López | Spain (ESP) | 3:37.62 | Q |
| 16 | 1 | Jakob Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:37.67 | Q |
| 17 | 1 | Alexis Miellet | France (FRA) | 3:37.69 | Q |
| 18 | 1 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:37.69 | Q |
| 19 | 1 | Jake Wightman | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:37.72 | Q |
| 20 | 1 | Marcin Lewandowski | Poland (POL) | 3:37.75 | Q |
| 21 | 1 | Amos Bartelsmeyer | Germany (GER) | 3:37.80 | Q |
| 22 | 1 | Samuel Tefera | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:37.82 | q |
| 23 | 2 | Isaac Kimeli | Belgium (BEL) | 3:37.87 | q |
| 24 | 2 | Youssouf Hich Bachir | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:37.93 | q |
| 25 | 1 | Adel Mechaal | Spain (ESP) | 3:37.95 | |
| 26 | 2 | Kumari Taki | Kenya (KEN) | 3:37.98 | |
| 27 | 1 | Filip Sasínek | Czech Republic (CZE) | 3:38.17 | |
| 28 | 1 | George Manangoi | Kenya (KEN) | 3:38.39 | |
| 29 | 1 | Ryan Gregson | Australia (AUS) | 3:38.69 | |
| 30 | 1 | Abdi Waiss Mouhyadin | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:38.79 | |
| 31 | 3 | Ismael Debjani | Belgium (BEL) | 3:39.11 | |
| 32 | 3 | Jakub Holuša | Czech Republic (CZE) | 3:39.79 | |
| 33 | 1 | Hicham Ouladha | Morocco (MAR) | 3:39.86 | |
| 34 | 2 | Jinson Johnson | India (IND) | 3:39.86 | |
| 35 | 3 | Abdullahi Jama Mohamed | Somalia (SOM) | 3:40.84 | |
| 36 | 2 | Teddese Lemi | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:41.32 | qR |
| 37 | 3 | Abdirahman Saeed Hassan | Qatar (QAT) | 3:42.24 | |
| 38 | 2 | Musulman Dzholomanov | Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) | 3:45.07 | |
| 39 | 1 | Abraham Kipchirchir Rotich | Kenya (KEN) | 3:45.19 | |
| 40 | 3 | Yach Majok Koon Wol | South Sudan (SSD) | 3:46.24 | |
| 41 | 2 | Matthew Ramsden | Australia (AUS) | 3:47.59 | qR |
| 42 | 2 | Paulo Amotun Lokoro | Athlete Refugee Team (ART) | 3:48.98 | |
| 43 | 1 | Lucirio Antonio Garrido | Venezuela (VEN) | 3:52.93 | |
| | 3 | Brahim Kaazouzi | Morocco (MAR) | DNS | DNS |
| | 2 | Rabil Doukkana | France (FRA) | DNS | DNS |

### Semi-finals

The first five in each heat (Q) and the next two fastest (q) qualified for the final.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Marcin Lewandowski | Poland (POL) | 3:36.50 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Timothy Cheruiyot | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.53 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Ronald Kwemoi | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.53 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Jakob Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:36.58 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Josh Kerr | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:36.58 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | Taoufik Makhloufi | Algeria (ALG) | 3:36.69 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Neil Gourley | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:36.69 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Craig Engels | United States (USA) | 3:36.69 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | Kalle Berglund | Sweden (SWE) | 3:36.72 | Q |
| 10 | 2 | Youssouf Hich Bachir | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:36.72 | Q, SB |
| 11 | 2 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:36.77 | q, SB |
| 12 | 2 | Jake Wightman | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:36.85 | q |
| 13 | 1 | Ben Blankenship | United States (USA) | 3:36.98 | |
| 14 | 1 | Filip Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:37.00 | |
| 15 | 2 | Matthew Ramsden | Australia (AUS) | 3:37.16 | PB |
| 16 | 2 | Ronald Musagala | Uganda (UGA) | 3:37.19 | |
| 17 | 1 | Alexis Miellet | France (FRA) | 3:37.39 | |
| 18 | 1 | Isaac Kimeli | Belgium (BEL) | 3:37.50 | |
| 19 | 2 | Kevin López | Spain (ESP) | 3:37.56 | |
| 20 | 2 | Amos Bartelsmeyer | Germany (GER) | 3:37.74 | |
| 21 | 1 | Stewart McSweyn | Australia (AUS) | 3:37.95 | |
| 22 | 1 | Ayanleh Souleiman | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:38.35 | |
| 23 | 1 | Teddese Lemi | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:38.79 | PB |
| 24 | 1 | Jesús Gómez | Spain (ESP) | 3:40.29 | |
| 25 | 2 | Abdelaati Iguider | Morocco (MAR) | 3:42.23 | |
| | 2 | Samuel Tefera | Ethiopia (ETH) | DNF | DNF |

### Final

The final was started on 6 October at 19:40.
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Timothy Cheruiyot | Kenya (KEN) | 3:29.26 | |
| | Taoufik Makhloufi | Algeria (ALG) | 3:31.38 | SB |
| | Marcin Lewandowski | Poland (POL) | 3:31.46 | NR |
| 4 | Jakob Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:31.70 | |
| 5 | Jake Wightman | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:31.87 | PB |
| 6 | Josh Kerr | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:32.52 | PB |
| 7 | Ronald Kwemoi | Kenya (KEN) | 3:32.72 | SB |
| 8 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:32.81 | SB |
| 9 | Kalle Berglund | Sweden (SWE) | 3:33.70 | NR |
| 10 | Craig Engels | United States (USA) | 3:34.24 | |
| 11 | Neil Gourley | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:37.30 | |
| 12 | Youssouf Hich Bachir | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:37.96 | |