#7 – Men’s 800m
Kenyan-born Danish two lapper Wilson Kipketer had been the dominant athlete over the Olympiad, winning both world championships and breaking Seb Coe’s longstanding world record, and then better it again, in the period. He had also been the 1995 world champion, but missed the Atlanta Olympics due to citizenship rules.
The final wasn’t a fast affair, but was rough. Andre Bucher from Switzerland, on the rail, and Andrea Longo from Italy, on his outside, led at the bell in a slow 53.43 seconds. A critical incident occurred with 200m to go where Longo was disqualified for nudging Bucher off the track onto the infield. The rest of the field poised themselves for the sprint in the home straight.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was Germany’s Nils Shumann that had the clearest run down the home straight. He held off the fast finishing Kipketer , who finished out in lane four, with Algeria’s Djabir Said-Guerni finishing wide in lane five for the bronze.
The times weren’t remarkable – 1:45.08 for gold – but only eight-hundredths-of-a-second separated the medals and 0.22 seconds the top five.
Next -> #6 – Women’s 5000m
