Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres


These are the official results of the Men's 800 metres event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The competition was held on July 23, 1976, July 24, 1976, and on July 25, 1976.
From the gun Alberto Juantorena took an apparent lead against the field through the staggered start. Passing the break at 300 metres, the long striding Cuban was a couple of steps ahead of the noticeably smaller American Rick Wohlhuter. Sriram Singh came from more than 10 metres back at the break to sprint past Juantorena and the rest of the field, to take the lead just after the bell. Singh's lead was short lived as the field bunched then started to make their way around him. Wohlhuter stuck less than a mere step behind Juantorena all the way through the final turn as Ivo van Damme, Willi Wülbeck and future champion Steve Ovett jockeyed for position. Coming off the turn, Juantorena found more speed to pull away from Wohlhuter. As he struggled down the home stretch, Wohlhuter was passed by van Damme 20 metres before the finish.
Juantorena's 1:43.5 broke Marcello Fiasconaro's hand timed world record of 1:43.7. Despite the erratic pace, Singh's time in 7th place stood as the Asian record until it was broken by Lee Jin-il in 1994.

Records

These are the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1976 Summer Olympics.
World Record1:43.7 Marcello FiasconaroMilan June 27, 1973
Olympic Record1:44.40 Ralph DoubellMexico City October 15, 1968

Final

RANKFINALTIME
1:43.50
1:43.86
1:44.12
4.1:45.26
5.1:45.44
6.1:45.75
7.1:45.77
8.1:48.39

Semifinals

RANKHEAT 1TIME
1.1:45.88
2.1:46.00
3.1:46.14
4.1:46.42
5.1:46.43
6.1:47.06
7.1:48.18
—DNF

RANKHEAT 2TIME
1.1:46.72
2.1:46.95
3.1:47.03
4.1:47.18
5.1:47.22
6.1:47.31
7.1:47.71
8.1:48.28

Heats

RANKHEAT 1TIME
1.1:45.71
2.1:45.86
3.1:45.88
4.1:46.36
5.1:46.56
6.1:46.81
7.1:48.50

RANKHEAT 2TIME
1.1:47.51
2.1:47.56
3.1:47.63
4.1:48.38
5.1:49.58
6.1:55.56
7.2:15.26

RANKHEAT 3TIME
1.1:48.27
2.1:48.46
3.1:48.47
4.1:48.63
5.1:48.83
6.1:48.99
7.1:49.85
8.1:57.97

RANKHEAT 4TIME
1.1:47.15
2.1:47.21
3.1:47.40
4.1:47.73
5.1:51.38
—DSQ
—DNS

RANKHEAT 5TIME
1.1:48.47
2.1:48.48
3.1:48.59
4.1:48.86
5.1:49.60
6.1:51.43
7.1:57.67

RANKHEAT 6TIME
1.1:47.80
2.1:47.82
3.1:47.96
4.1:48.69
5.1:49.29
6.1:50.15
7.1:50.81