Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

Men's 800 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 13–15
Competitors	43 from 33 nations
Winning time	1:44.3
Medalists
Ralph Doubell   Australia   Wilson Kiprugut   Kenya   Tom Farrell   United States

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Men's 800 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event were held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 13–15.

Competition format

The competition had seven heats in the first round, two semi-finals and a final. The top two in the first round heats progressed, as did the four fastest non-qualifiers. The top four finishers in the semi-final race reached the finals.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Peter Snell (NZL)	1:44.3	Christchurch, New Zealand	February 2, 1962
Olympic record	Peter Snell (NZL)	1:45.1	Tokyo, Japan	October 16, 1964

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 4 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Thomas Saisi	Kenya	1:47.0	Q
2	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	1:47.6	Q
3	Matias Habtemichael	Ethiopia	1:49.6
4	Papa M'Baye N'Diaye	Senegal	1:51.3
5	Wade Bell	United States	1:51.5
6	Róbert Honti	Hungary	1:53.8

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dieter Fromm	East Germany	1:46.9	Q
2	Franz-Josef Kemper	West Germany	1:47.0	Q
3	Ron Kutschinski	United States	1:47.6	q
4	Ramasamy Subramaniam	Malaysia	1:50.8
5	Gilbert Van Manshoven	Belgium	1:52.3
N/A	Guillermo Cuello	Argentina	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Walter Adams	West Germany	1:48.4	Q
2	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	1:48.6	Q
3	Noel Carroll	Ireland	1:49.0
4	Ahmed Issa	Chad	1:49.0
5	Roberto Silva	Mexico	1:50.4
6	Gerd Larsen	Denmark	1:51.9
N/A	Neville Myton	Jamaica	DNF

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Doubell	Australia	1:47.2	Q
2	Henryk Szordykowski	Poland	1:47.4	Q
3	Robert Ouko	Kenya	1:47.6	q
4	John Ametepey	Ghana	1:50.7
5	Gilles Sibon	France	1:50.8
6	Chris Carter	Great Britain	1:52.9
7	José L'Oficial	Dominican Republic	1:55.6
8	Alfredo Cubías	El Salvador	2:08.7

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:46.1	Q
2	Tom Farrell	United States	1:47.9	Q
3	Tomáš Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	1:48.7
4	Anders Gärderud	Sweden	1:48.9
5	Jun Nagai	Japan	1:51.2
6	Angelo Hussein	Sudan	1:53.4
7	Jacques Pennewaert	Belgium	1:53.8
8	Francisco Menocal	Nicaragua	1:58.9

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dave Cropper	Great Britain	1:47.9	Q
2	Ben Cayenne	Trinidad and Tobago	1:48.2	Q
3	Yevhen Arzhanov	Soviet Union	1:48.4	q
4	Byron Dyce	Jamaica	1:48.5	q
5	Mamo Sebsibe	Ethiopia	1:49.7
6	Gianni Del Buono	Italy	1:50.2
7	Xaver Frick, Jr.	Liechtenstein	1:52.6
8	Carlos Báez	Puerto Rico	1:52.6

Semifinals

Qual. rule: first 4 of each heat (Q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Walter Adams	West Germany	1:46.4	Q
2	Dieter Fromm	East Germany	1:46.5	Q
3	Thomas Saisi	Kenya	1:46.6	Q
4	Ben Cayenne	Trinidad and Tobago	1:46.8	Q
5	Ron Kutschinski	United States	1:47.3
6	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	1:51.8

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ralph Doubell	Australia	1:45.7	Q
2	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:45.8	Q
3	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	1:45.9	Q
4	Tom Farrell	United States	1:46.1	Q
5	Robert Ouko	Kenya	1:47.1
6	Byron Dyce	Jamaica	1:47.2
7	Franz-Josef Kemper	West Germany	1:47.3
8	Dave Cropper	Great Britain	1:47.6

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Ralph Doubell	Australia	1:44.3	NR
	Wilson Kiprugut	Kenya	1:44.5
	Tom Farrell	United States	1:45.4
4	Walter Adams	West Germany	1:45.8
5	Jozef Plachý	Czechoslovakia	1:45.9
6	Dieter Fromm	East Germany	1:46.2
7	Thomas Saisi	Kenya	1:47.5
8	Ben Cayenne	Trinidad and Tobago	1:54.3

References

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
• Athletics at the 1968 Ciudad de México Summer Games: Men's 800 metres. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.