World Championships: Men's 800m
The inaugural IAAF World Championships final in Helsinki in 1983 saw a surprise win for Willi Wulbeck. The German had been beaten by inches by Steve Ovett in the 1973 European Junior Championships and beat Ovett by a place in the 1976 Olympic final but had won nothing of note until he surged to victory in 1:43.65, which was then the fifth fastest ever time.
World record-holder Seb Coe withdrew from the event with illness too late for Olympic champion Ovett to replace him, but a Briton still made an impact. The 20-year-old Peter Elliott pushed through 400m in 50.58 and still held the lead around the final bend but faded to fourth as 1984 Olympic champion to-be Joaquim Cruz finished third. The 1976 Olympic champion, Alberto Juantorena, broke a bone in his ankle in the heat after qualifying and withdrew from the semi-final.
Elliott was back four years later in Rome and ran a less aggressive race after Jose Luis Barbosa ran a 50.59 opening lap. He finished a strong second to Kenyan Billy Konchellah, who kicked to a clear three-metre win in 1:43.06. That time will still stand as the championship record as the field line up in Beijing 28 years later.
In Tokyo in 1991, Konchellah returned after some poor years in between due to tuberculosis and asthma and he easily retained his title after Johnny Gray had sped through 400m in 51.01. He won in 1:43.99 with Barbosa winning his second silver.
Konchellah was the favourite in 1993 in Stuttgart after he won his semi impressively. However, over-confident in the final, he held back as his team-mate Paul Ruto led through 400m in 51.16. Konchellah was last at 600m, 1.2 seconds behind Ruto and finished much the stronger with a 25.73-second last 200m but finished a few metres behind and had to settle for bronze as Ruto’s 26.75 last half-lap sufficed for gold. Olympic finalist Curtis Robb was a well-beaten fourth and world indoor champion Tom McKean was last for the second time in three finals. In the intervening year in 1991 as the European champion, McKean was unlucky to go out in his heat by 0.01 as he was edged by Konchellah and bronze medallist Mark Everett.
After three successive Kenyan golds, there was another of sorts in 1995 in Gothenburg as Kenyanborn Wilson Kipketer won the title for his new country, Denmark. He was a huge favourite after a 1:42.87 in Monaco on the eve of the championships and confirmed this with a 23.9 last 200m in his semi-final. In the final, he only required a 25.3 final split as he won easily with a rare faster second lap.
Kipketer was even better in Athens in 1997. After setting a world record when winning World Indoor gold, he again front-ran and flew through 400m in 49.68. He eased back down the back straight but accelerated again for a clear victory in 1:43.38 with runner-up Norberto Tellez a distant second in 1:44.00.
Kipketer won his third title in Seville in 1999 but only just as it took a diving lunge at the line to deny Olympic silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng, who had the race of his life and only lost by two hundredths of a second to Kipketer’s 1:43.30. Andre Bucher, who had been a semi-finalist in the previous two championships, was a different athlete for the final in Edmonton in 2001. William Bungei led through 400m in 50.41, but Bucher was clear by 600m and he took Switzerland’s first ever world or Olympic track title at a canter in 1:43.70. The margin of 0.85 seconds is still the biggest in a world two-lap final.
Sepeng was last and Olympic champion Nils Schumann was fifth. British 800m running reached a low at these championships with not a single UK runner selected.
There was a big surprise in 2003 when Djabir Said-Guerni, who had only narrowly squeezed into the final, finished strongly to deny former world indoor champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy by three hundredths after the Russian had uncharacteristically led for nearly all the last 200 metres. The Algerian winner lived just 3km from the Paris track. Three-time champion Kipketer was fourth.
The highly suspicious Rashid Ramzi kicked to victory in Helsinki in 2005, and it was no surprise when the Bahrainian failed a drugs test in the 2008 Olympics and lost his 1500m gold medal. Borzakovskiy was second again, but this time left it too late coming from seventh at 600 metres. Said-Guerni was fifth. James McIlroy became the first British semi-finalist in 10 years.
After some fast heats, the Osaka 2007 final was a disappointment in terms of times as Alfred Kirwa Yego’s 1:47.09 was the slowest yet, but it was the closest race with half a second covering the eight finalists and the smallest winning margin as Canadian Gary Reed was passed on the line and lost out on gold by two hundredths. Borzakovskiy won his third successive medal in third, again coming from too far back.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who died last year in a car crash, was far from favourite in Berlin in 2009. He had been sixth in 2001, third in 2003, a semi-finalist in 2005 and seventh in 2007. He had only qualified for the final as a fastest loser. In a race which contained 10 athletes due to falling athletes being reinstated he had to share his lane. He ran the race of his life leading through 400m in a slow 53.44 after a dismal 28.4 second 200m. He held the lead and accelerated through the third 200m in 26.38 and then held off the opposition with a 25.47 last 200m. Yego, who was also through to the final as a fastest loser, ran him close, though, and his 25.04 final 200m fell just 0.06 short after he was just seventh at 600m.
David Rudisha failed to get through to the final despite running 1:42.01 in 2009 but, by 2011, he was far more accomplished and his front-running tactics brought him his 31st successive 800m victory. Leading all the way, he passed 400m in a relaxed 51.33 and eventually won by exactly half a second from Abubaker Kaki. In a record fifth final – he was fourth in 2009, Borzakovskiy won his fourth medal, a bronze.
After winning the Olympics in a world record time in 2012, Rudisha was injured for Moscow in 2013 and gold went to Ethiopian Mohamed Aman, who had been last in 2011. American Duane Solomon led through 400m in a fast 50.28, but it was his compatriot Nick Symmonds who finished strongest to take the silver medal behind Aman’s 1:43.31. Olympic finalist Andrew Osagie produced the best British result for 20 years with a fifth place. Kenya, the nation that has dominated the event (see the points scoring table), didn’t have a single finalist. In the points table, it’s worth noting both Russia and Denmark make the top five, though their scores come from a single runner in Borzakovskiy and Kipketer.
Year | Winner | Time | Top Brit
1983 Willi Wulbeck (GER) 1:43.65 4th Peter Elliott 1:44.87
1987 Billy Konchellah (KEN) 1:43.06 2nd Peter Elliott 1:43.41
1991 Billy Konchellah (KEN) 1:43.99 8th sf Steve Heard 1:49.91 (1:46.29 ht)
1993 Paul Ruto (KEN) 1:44.71 4th Curtis Robb 1:45.54
1995 Wilson Kipketer (DEN) 1:45.08 8th sf Curtis Robb 1:50.12 (1:46.34 ht)
1997 Wilson Kipketer (DEN) 1:43.38 8th qf Andy Hart 1:48.03 (1:47.98 ht)
1999 Wilson Kipketer (DEN) 1:43.30 4th ht Mark Sesay 1:47.48
2001 Andre Bucher (SUI) 1:43.70 No competitor
2003 Djabir Said-Guerni 1:44.81 3rd ht Ricky Soos 1:47.80
2005 Rashid Ramzi (BRN) 1:44.24 7th sf James McIlroy 1:45.91
2007 Alfred Yego (KEN) 1:47.09 6th sf Michael Rimmer 1:47.39 (1:45.66 ht)
2009 Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (RSA) 1:45.29 7th sf Michael Rimmer 1:46.77
2011 David Rudisha (KEN) 1:43.91 4th sf Andrew Osagie 1:46.12 (1:46.08 ht)
2013 Mohammed Aman (ETH) 1:43.31 5th Andrew Osagie 1:44.36
Top points (8 for 1st etc)
1. KEN 108
2. USA 46
3. RSA 33
4. RUS 31
5. DEN 30
6. POL 29
7. BRA 23
8. GBR 23
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