Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres
The Men's 1500 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 3–7 August. The first round races were all very tightly packed, strategic affairs. The first race was the fastest, taking all but one of the time qualifiers into the semi-final. Andrew Wheating's 3:40.92 in the second heat was the slowest time qualifier, though it was exactly equal to Nick Willis' winning time in the last race. That race was broken up when Nixon Chepseba tripped sending several athletes scrambling to avoid the falling body. Chepseba ultimately finished 9th but was awarded a place in the semi-final on appeal, though no offending athlete was disqualified. The first semi final was strategic from the start, when the sprinting started, Taoufik Makhloufi easily took the lead and held the position. Since it was strategic, no time qualifiers came from this semi. In the other semi, Chepseba took it out at a faster pace, to avoid getting caught in traffic. At the 800 mark, Nathan Brannen fell flat and was not able to get back into contention. When the sprinting started, Abdalaati Iguider looked to be the fastest. The slowest time qualifier was almost 7 seconds faster than Makhloufi winning the first. Earlier on the day before the final, Makhloufi was also in an 800 metresqualifying round race, but he ran slowly and dropped out. Because of the "honest effort" rule, he was disqualified from further competition in the Olympics. It took an appeal by Algerian team officials to get him re-instated by claiming he had a known knee injury. In the final, Makhloufi made a miraculous recovery from the injury in order to run. Kenyan Chepseba, and Kenyan born Bahraini Belal Mansoor Ali ran shoulder to shoulder until 600 to go when Chepseba then decided to take the lead solo. Behind him runners were three abreast, with Makhloufi and Silas Kiplagat trading elbows to be in position for the final lap. Another elbow just before 300 to go, and Makhloufi broke away with Kiplagat and Mekonnen Gebremedhin in hot pursuit. With Makhloufi gone, 8 meters ahead, Gebremedhin took over second at the head of the stretch, Iguider sprinting a step behind. Five meters further back, Leonel Manzano was starting to sprint around teammate Matthew Centrowitz, Jr.. As Iguider was edging ahead of Gebremedhin, Manzano was rocketing along the outside passing into second 30 meters from the finish. Iguider just barely managed to finish a fraction ahead of the fast closing Centrowitz for the bronze medal.
Competition format
The Men's 1500m competition consisted of heats, Semifinals and a Final. In Round One the first six in each heat plus the next six fastest overall advanced for the semi-finals. In the Semifinals the first five in each heat along with the next two fastest overall qualified for the final.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
