Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics - Men's 1500 metres
| Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
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| Venue | Seoul Olympic Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Date | 29 September – 1 October | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 59 | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 3:35.96 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Peter Rono |
 Kenya
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Peter Elliott |
 Great Britain
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Jens-Peter Herold |
 East Germany
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The men's 1500 metres event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entrylist of 59 competitors, with four qualifying heats (59) and two semi-finals (26), before the final (12) took place on Saturday October 1, 1988.
This race typified the tactical running of miles and 1500's of this era. Nobody really cared about leading early or pushing the pace, Marcus O'Sullivan took the point by default. The British new guard of Peter Elliott and Steve Cram were just behind Omer Khalifa marking the lead. Just before two laps to go, the Kenyan team decided to change position led by Peter Rono moving out to lane 2 and from dead last running past the entire field into first place. He was soon joined by Joseph Chesire who served as a Kenyan wall at the front. The first challenge to the wall was Jeff Atkinson, who managed to get around Chesire but could not get past Rono. Cheshire's weakness exposed, the entire pack went around him, everybody aiming to be just off the lead at the bell, the ever-present Steve Scott behind Atkinson, the Britons, with Jens-Peter Herold, Han Kulker and Kipkoech Cheruiyot all jockeying for position behind Rono on the backstretch. Atkinson faded while Elliott, Cram and Herold emerged toward the front, still behind Rono who was watching over his shoulder. Cram poised himself on Elliott's shoulder to make the big move coming off the turn with Scott, Kulker and Cheruiyot showing similar aspirations a step behind. But the only big move was Herold sneaking past Elliott on the inside while Elliott was concerned with Cram on his outside. Nobody's big move really advanced their position, Elliott using his best sprinting to just edge back ahead of Herold by the finish line for silver, Rono untested ahead of everyone.
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics.
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