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1978 European Athletics Championships – Men's 800 metres

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Men's 800 metres
at the European Athletics Championships

These are the official results of the Men's 800 metres event at the 1978 European Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.[1][2] The final was held on 31 August 1978.[3]

The two favourites for the race were Steve Ovett[4] and Sebastian Coe[5] Ovett had won silver at 800 m at the previous European Championships in 1974 in Rome,[6] and had won the 1500m, in spectacular fashion, at the IAAF World Cup[7] the previous year (he was to remain unbeaten at that distance until the 1980 Olympics).[8] Coe was the new British record holder at 800 m and the fastest man that year leading into the race at 800 m.[9]

The race was billed in the press, the British press in particular, as a 'Coe versus Ovett' contest - a race that was the start of a rivalry that was to dominate not only British and European but World middle-distance running over the next few years.[10][11] However, by concentrating on Coe and Ovett the press were ignoring the other talents in the race, including East Germany's Olaf Beyer.[12]

In the race itself, Coe led from the front setting a blistering first lap pace, going through the bell in a suicidal 49.32 s. At 700 m, he was spent and Ovett kicked past him for home. However, the fast-finishing Beyer first caught Coe and then Ovett to strike gold, in doing so recording the fastest time that year.[13]

Medalists

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Gold Olaf Beyer
 East Germany
Silver Steve Ovett
 Great Britain
Bronze Sebastian Coe
 Great Britain

Results

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Final

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31 August

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Olaf Beyer  East Germany 1:43.84 CR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:44.09
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:44.76
4 Anatoliy Reshetnyak  Soviet Union 1:45.79
5 Vladimir Podolyako  Soviet Union 1:46.24
6 Andreas Busse  East Germany 1:47.1
7 Dragan Životić  Yugoslavia 1:47.4
8 José Marajo  France 1:53.4

Semi-finals

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30 August

Semi-final 1

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:47.44 Q
2 Andreas Busse  East Germany 1:47.6 Q
3 José Marajo  France 1:47.7 Q
4 Vladimir Podolyako  Soviet Union 1:47.8 Q
5 Markku Taskinen  Finland 1:47.9
6 Uwe Becker  West Germany 1:48.2
7 Detlef Wagenknecht  East Germany 1:48.5
8 Arno Körmeling  Netherlands 1:49.2

Semi-final 2

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:46.51 Q
2 Olaf Beyer  East Germany 1:46.74 Q
3 Dragan Životić  Yugoslavia 1:46.94 Q
4 Anatoliy Reshetnyak  Soviet Union 1:47.2 Q
5 Hans-Peter Ferner  West Germany 1:47.4
6 Sermet Timurlenk  Turkey 1:47.9
7 Roger Milhau  France 1:48.9
8 Günther Hasler  Liechtenstein 1:49.3

Heats

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29 August

Heat 1

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Steve Ovett  Great Britain 1:47.80 Q
2 Hans-Peter Ferner  West Germany 1:48.1 Q
3 Markku Taskinen  Finland 1:48.3 Q
4 Detlef Wagenknecht  East Germany 1:48.4 q
5 Vladimir Malozemlin  Soviet Union 1:48.6
6 Carlo Grippo  Italy 1:48.6

Heat 2

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Olaf Beyer  East Germany 1:47.72 Q
2 Arno Körmeling  Netherlands 1:48.1 Q
3 Günther Hasler  Liechtenstein 1:48.5 Q
4 Justin Gloden  Luxembourg 1:49.0
5 David O’Donnell  Great Britain 1:49.3

Heat 3

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Andreas Busse  East Germany 1:49.08 Q
2 José Marajo  France 1:49.4 Q
3 Anatoliy Reshetnyak  Soviet Union 1:49.5 Q
4 Milovan Savić  Yugoslavia 1:50.0
5 Milan Timko  Czechoslovakia 1:50.5
6 Panagiotis Pallikaris  Greece 1:51.6

Heat 4

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1 Sebastian Coe  Great Britain 1:46.82 Q
2 Roger Milhau  France 1:47.07 Q
3 Uwe Becker  West Germany 1:47.13 Q
4 Dragan Životić  Yugoslavia 1:47.18 q
5 Vladimir Podolyako  Soviet Union 1:47.19 q
6 Sermet Timurlenk  Turkey 1:47.23 q
7 Jón Didriksson  Iceland 1:50.4

Participation

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According to an unofficial count, 24 athletes from 15 countries participated in the event.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjzR8AOvEzc 1978 European 800m - men, youtube.com. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  2. ^ European Athletics Championships Zürich 2014 - STATISTICS HANDBOOK (PDF), European Athletics Association, pp. 427–435, retrieved 13 August 2014
  3. ^ http://home.swipnet.se/athletics/resultat1978.htm Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine European Championship 1978. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  4. ^ Steve Ovett at Sports Reference Steve Ovett biography, Sports-Reference.co. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  5. ^ Sebastian Coe at Sports Reference Sebastian Coe biography, Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  6. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU9Gqhoqno4 'ROMA 1974: 800 MASCHILI - LUCIANO SUSANJ', youtube.com.
  7. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GogWlv7Q 1977 World Cup 1500m - Steve Ovett, youtube.com.
  8. ^ http://www.uka.org.uk/e-inspire/hall-of-fame-athletes/steve-ovett/ Archived 2009-06-17 at archive.today Steve Ovett, United Kingdom Athletics biography.
  9. ^ http://www.uka.org.uk/e-inspire/hall-of-fame-athletes/sebastian-coe/ Archived 2012-05-15 at the Wayback Machine Sebastian Coe, United Kingdom Athletics biography.
  10. ^ http://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/sja-news/sja-1948-2008/we-will-never-see-their-like-again/ "We will never see their like again.", Randall Northam, 9 June 2008, Sports Journalists' Association. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  11. ^ http://www.sportinglife.com/olympics/history/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=others/00/07/05/OLYMPICS_Coe_and_Ovett.insdat "Olympic greats - Coe and Ovett", Richard Gibson, sportinglife.com. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  12. ^ Olaf Beyer at Sports Reference Olaf Beyer biography, Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  13. ^ http://digilander.libero.it/Mennea/Stagionali/WRL/1978/800.htm 1978 800m performances. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
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  • Results 1978 European Championship Results