# 2013 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 1500 metres

The men's 1500 metres at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium on 14–18 August. The winning margin was 0.50 seconds.
For those competitors lucky enough to get into semifinal 1, they were treated to a rather pedestrian tactical race controlled by defending champion, Olympic champion and world leader Asbel Kiprop. If you can't kick with him, you go home. Semifinal 2 was a different story with a much faster pace all the time qualifiers came from this race, with several also rans left out with times faster than Kiprop.
With three Kenyans qualified, rumors were out that there would be a fast pace for the final. That wasn't the case, first Kiprop looked around for his teammates and they weren't there. On the second lap Nixon Chepseba took off into the lead, but all eyes were on Kiprop and nobody followed. Matthew Centrowitz took up the position directly behind Kiprop on the rail, Mekonnen Gebremedhin on his shoulder. For the next two laps Chipseba ran on his own, opening up as much as a 10-meter lead. But when the running got serious everybody jockeyed for position behind Kiprop, Chipseba acting more like a blockade. Kiprop didn't really unleash his kick until 90 meters from the finish. Centrowitz moved right with him following Kiprop to the line for silver, with Johan Cronje squeezing past Chipseba on the inside to take bronze.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the 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 | Asbel Kiprop (KEN) | 3:27.72 | Monaco | 19 July 2013 |
| 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 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 | Nicholas Willis (NZL) | 3:30.35 | Monaco | 20 July 2012 |

## Qualification standards

| A time | B time |
| 3:35.00 | 3:37.00 |

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 14 August 2013 | 10:35 | Heats |
| 16 August 2013 | 19:05 | Semifinals |
| 18 August 2013 | 17:25 | Final |
All times are local times (UTC+4)

## Results

| KEY: | q | Fastest non-qualifiers | Q | Qualified | NR | National record | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best |

### Heats

Qualification: First 6 in each heat (Q) and the next 6 fastest (q) advanced to the semifinals.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Asbel Kiprop | Kenya (KEN) | 3:38.15 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Nixon Chepseba | Kenya (KEN) | 3:38.37 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Abdalaati Iguider | Morocco (MAR) | 3:38.41 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Lopez Lomong | United States (USA) | 3:38.48 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Nathan Brannen | Canada (CAN) | 3:38.49 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | Mekonnen Gebremedhin | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:38.55 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | Bethwell Birgen | Kenya (KEN) | 3:38.60 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:38.62 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | Ayanleh Souleiman | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:38.63 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | Homiyu Tesfaye | Germany (GER) | 3:38.66 | Q |
| 11 | 1 | Florian Carvalho | France (FRA) | 3:38.70 | Q |
| 12 | 1 | Henrik Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:38.78 | Q |
| 13 | 3 | Bouabdellah Tahri | France (FRA) | 3:38.82 | q |
| 14 | 3 | Chris O'Hare | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:38.86 | q |
| 15 | 1 | Aman Wote | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:38.89 | q |
| 16 | 3 | Mohamed Moustaoui | Morocco (MAR) | 3:39.20 | q |
| 17 | 1 | Valentin Smirnov | Russia (RUS) | 3:39.21 | q |
| 18 | 2 | Silas Kiplagat | Kenya (KEN) | 3:39.31 | Q |
| 19 | 2 | Leonel Manzano | United States (USA) | 3:39.39 | Q |
| 20 | 2 | İlham Tanui Özbilen | Turkey (TUR) | 3:39.31 | Q |
| 21 | 1 | Nick Willis | New Zealand (NZL) | 3:39.89 | q |
| 22 | 2 | Johan Cronje | South Africa (RSA) | 3:39.95 | Q |
| 23 | 1 | Mohamad Al-Garni | Qatar (QAT) | 3:40.01 | |
| 24 | 2 | Carsten Schlangen | Germany (GER) | 3:40.31 | Q |
| 25 | 3 | Pieter-Jan Hannes | Belgium (BEL) | 3:40.39 | |
| 26 | 2 | Zakaria Mazouzi | Morocco (MAR) | 3:40.76 | Q |
| 27 | 2 | Zebene Alemayehu | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:41.28 | |
| 28 | 2 | Andreas Vojta | Austria (AUT) | 3:41.51 | |
| 29 | 2 | Emad Noor | Saudi Arabia (KSA) | 3:41.68 | |
| 30 | 1 | David Bustos | Spain (ESP) | 3:41.69 | |
| 31 | 2 | Simon Denissel | France (FRA) | 3:42.06 | |
| 32 | 3 | Flavio Seholhe | Mozambique (MOZ) | 3:53.18 | |
| 33 | 3 | Nabil Al-Garbi | Yemen (YEM) | 3:59.95 | SB |
| 34 | 2 | Omar Mohamed Abdi | Somalia (SOM) | 4:00.00 | |
| 35 | 3 | Omar Bachir | Niger (NIG) | 4:00.18 | PB |
| 36 | 1 | Mamadou Barry | Guinea (GUI) | 4:16.38 | SB |
| 37 | 1 | Thinley Tenzin | Bhutan (BHU) | 4:24.54 | PB |
| | 2 | Imed Touil | Algeria (ALG) | DNS | |

### Semifinals

Qualification: First 5 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advanced to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba | Kenya (KEN) | 3:35.88 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:35.95 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Mohamed Moustaoui | Morocco (MAR) | 3:36.12 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Florian Carvalho | France (FRA) | 3:36.26 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Henrik Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:36.33 | Q, SB |
| 6 | 2 | Homiyu Tesfaye | Germany (GER) | 3:36.51 | q |
| 7 | 2 | Nathan Brannen | Canada (CAN) | 3:36.59 | q |
| 8 | 2 | Aman Wote | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:36.94 | |
| 9 | 2 | Ilham Tanui Özbilen | Turkey (TUR) | 3:37.07 | |
| 10 | 2 | Bethwell Birgen | Kenya (KEN) | 3:37.34 | |
| 11 | 2 | Ayanleh Souleiman | Djibouti (DJI) | 3:37.96 | |
| 12 | 1 | Asbel Kiprop | Kenya (KEN) | 3:43.30 | Q |
| 13 | 1 | Silas Kiplagat | Kenya (KEN) | 3:43.52 | Q |
| 14 | 1 | Mekonnen Gebremedhin | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:43.54 | Q |
| 15 | 1 | Chris O'Hare | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:43.58 | Q |
| 16 | 1 | Johan Cronje | South Africa (RSA) | 3:43.71 | Q |
| 17 | 1 | Lopez Lomong | United States (USA) | 3:43.79 | |
| 18 | 1 | Nicholas Willis | New Zealand (NZL) | 3:43.80 | |
| 19 | 1 | Leonel Manzano | United States (USA) | 3:44.00 | |
| 20 | 1 | Bouabdellah Tahri | France (FRA) | 3:44.24 | |
| 21 | 2 | Abdalaati Iguider | Morocco (MAR) | 3:44.36 | |
| 22 | 1 | Carsten Schlangen | Germany (GER) | 3:44.44 | |
| 23 | 1 | Zakaria Mazouzi | Morocco (MAR) | 3:45.54 | |
| 24 | 1 | Valentin Smirnov | Russia (RUS) | 3:46.03 | |

### Final

The final was started at 17:25.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 2 | Asbel Kiprop | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.28 |
| | 5 | Matthew Centrowitz Jr. | United States (USA) | 3:36.78 |
| | 9 | Johan Cronje | South Africa (RSA) | 3:36.83 |
| 4 | 4 | Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba | Kenya (KEN) | 3:36.87 |
| 5 | 1 | Homiyu Tesfaye | Germany (GER) | 3:37.03 |
| 6 | 11 | Silas Kiplagat | Kenya (KEN) | 3:37.11 |
| 7 | 8 | Mekonnen Gebremedhin | Ethiopia (ETH) | 3:37.21 |
| 8 | 6 | Henrik Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 3:37.52 |
| 9 | 12 | Mohamed Moustaoui | Morocco (MAR) | 3:38.08 |
| 10 | 7 | Nathan Brannen | Canada (CAN) | 3:38.09 |
| 11 | 10 | Florian Carvalho | France (FRA) | 3:39.17 |
| 12 | 3 | Chris O'Hare | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 3:46.04 |