Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

Men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
File:Olympic Athletics.png Olympic Athletics
Venue	Lenin Stadium
Dates	26 July 1980 (qualifying) 28 July 1980 (semi-finals) 31 July 1980 (final)
Competitors	32 from 18 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Bronisław Malinowski File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Filbert Bayi File:Flag of Tanzania.svg Tanzania 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Eshetu Tura File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia

The men's 3,000 metres steeplechase event at the 1980 Summer Olympics took place from 26 to 31 July at the Lenin Stadium. A total of 32 athletes competed, with three qualifying heats (32 runners) and two semi-finals (24) before the final (12).

Summary

As the previous Olympic final in Montreal had been in 1976, also this Olympic steeplechase final was quick from the start. In accordance with most pre-final expectations, Tanzania's Filbert Bayi sprinted to the lead soon after the start. With Ethiopia's Eshetu Tura and Spain's Francisco Sanchez following him, Bayi led the 12-man field through 1,000 metres in 2:38.4. During the second kilometre of this final, several runners gradually lost contact with the top steeplechasers. Already with four laps to go, Bayi had stretched his lead over Tura to 10 metres. With three laps to go, Bayi had expanded his lead to at least 20 metres. However, around that point, Poland's Bronislaw Malinowski moved into the third place. By the time Bayi passed 2,000 metres in 5:20.3, he started to tire out. His fatigue became visible with two laps to go, when he still held a 35-metre lead over Tura. As a result, he needed to stretch and strain his tired legs more and more, in order to jump over the barriers. By contrast, Malinowski kept jumping over the barriers smoothly and effortlessly. During the second-last lap, Malinowski passed Tura, and started to close in on Bayi. Although the Tanzanian was still around 20 metres ahead of the Pole at the start of the final lap, Bayi's speed had visibly slowed down. It was only a matter of time before Malinowski would catch and pass him. On the final bend, shortly before the last water barrier, Malinowski at last sprinted past the exhausted Bayi. The experienced Polish steeplechaser easily won the race, while Bayi was able to keep Tura behind himself. Spain's Domingo Ramon placed fourth, as this final's best Western European. (The Olympic Book of Moscow (The Runner Magazine), Helsinki, Finland, 1980; The Big Olympic Book (the 1980 edition), Helsinki, Finland; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xbEsKKDyNQ.)

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Henry Rono (KEN)	8:05.4	Seattle, United States	13 May 1978
Olympic record	File:Flag of Sweden.svg Anders Gärderud (SWE)	8:08.02	Montreal, Canada	28 July 1976

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Time	Notes
Tanzania	File:Flag of Tanzania.svg Filbert Bayi (TAN)	Final	8:12.48

Schedule

The men's 3000 metres steeplechase took place over three separate days. All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 26 July 1980	18:20	Round 1
Monday, 28 July 1980	20:35	Semi-finals
Thursday, 31 July 1980	19:15	Final

Results

Heats

Note: Top six in each heat (Q) and the next six fastest (q) advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Filbert Bayi	File:Flag of Tanzania.svg Tanzania	8:21.38	Q
2	Eshetu Tura	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:23.73	Q
3	Bogusław Mamiński	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:23.92	Q
4	Wolfgang Konrad	File:Flag of Austria.svg Austria	8:24.92	Q
5	Francisco Sánchez	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:27.50	Q
6	Tommy Ekblom	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	8:27.80	Q
7	Aleksandr Vorobey	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:42.59	q
8	Tony Staynings	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:47.42	q
9	Nicolae Voicu	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:48.97
10	Anders Carlson	File:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	9:01.77

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Bronisław Malinowski	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:29.80	Q
2	Dušan Moravčík	File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg Czechoslovakia	8:33.31	Q
3	Serhiy Olizarenko	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:34.20	Q
4	Colin Reitz	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:35.21	Q
5	Roberto Volpi	File:Olympic flag.svg Italy	8:35.53	Q
6	Vesa Laukkanen	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	8:38.33	Q
7	Paul Copu	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:45.54	q
8	Girma Wolde-Hana	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:54.60
9	Ralf Pönitzsch	File:Flag of East Germany.svg East Germany	8:56.45
10	Abdul Karim Joumaa	File:Flag of Syria.svg Syria	9:29.38
—	José Sena	File:Flag of Portugal-1980-Olympics.svg Portugal	—	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Domingo Ramón	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:31.81	Q
2	Anatoly Dimov	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:33.18	Q
3	Vasile Bichea	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:35.35	Q
4	Krzysztof Wesołowski	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:35.58	Q
5	Roger Hackney	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:36.34	Q
6	Giuseppe Gerbi	File:Olympic flag.svg Italy	8:37.03	Q
7	Lahcen Babaci	File:Flag of Algeria.svg Algeria	8:38.68	q
8	Hailu Wolde-Tsadik	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:40.98	q
9	Stanimir Nenov	File:Flag of Bulgaria (1971-1990).svg Bulgaria	8:43.77	q
10	Albert Marie	File:Flag of Seychelles (1977–1996).svg Seychelles	9:19.62
—	Tapio Kantanen	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	—	DNS

Semi-finals

Note: Top four in each heat (Q) and the next four fastest (q) advanced to the final.

Semi-final 1

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Filbert Bayi	File:Flag of Tanzania.svg Tanzania	8:16.11	Q
2	Eshetu Tura	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:16.17	Q
3	Bogusław Mamiński	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:18.78	Q
4	Francisco Sánchez	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:18.96	Q
5	Anatoliy Dimov	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:24.81	q
6	Lahcen Babaci	File:Flag of Algeria.svg Algeria	8:25.47	q
7	Roberto Volpi	File:Olympic flag.svg Italy	8:29.70
8	Colin Reitz	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:29.75
9	Krzysztof Wesołowski	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:33.02
10	Vesa Laukkanen	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	8:33.30
11	Paul Copu	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:44.91
12	Stanimir Nenov	File:Flag of Bulgaria (1971-1990).svg Bulgaria	8:50.17

Semi-final 2

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Bronisław Malinowski	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:21.15	Q
2	Domingo Ramón	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:21.94	Q
3	Vasile Bichea	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:24.23	Q
4	Tommy Ekblom	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	8:24.29	Q
5	Giuseppe Gerbi	File:Olympic flag.svg Italy	8:27.19	q
6	Dušan Moravčík	File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg Czechoslovakia	8:28.00	q
7	Roger Hackney	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:29.18
8	Hailu Wolde-Tsadik	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:34.94
9	Aleksandr Vorobey	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:44.24
10	Wolfgang Konrad	File:Flag of Austria.svg Austria	8:51.59
11	Tony Staynings	File:Olympic flag.svg Great Britain	8:52.30
—	Serhiy Olizarenko	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	—	DNF

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s)	Bronisław Malinowski	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:09.70
2nd place, silver medalist(s)	Filbert Bayi	File:Flag of Tanzania.svg Tanzania	8:12.48	NR
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)	Eshetu Tura	File:Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987).svg Ethiopia	8:13.57
4	Domingo Ramón	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:15.74
5	Francisco Sánchez	File:Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg Spain	8:17.93
6	Giuseppe Gerbi	File:Olympic flag.svg Italy	8:18.47	PB
7	Bogusław Mamiński	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland	8:19.43
8	Anatoliy Dimov	File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union	8:19.75
9	Vasile Bichea	File:Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg Romania	8:23.86
10	Dušan Moravčík	File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg Czechoslovakia	8:29.03
11	Lahcen Babaci	File:Flag of Algeria.svg Algeria	8:31.80
12	Tommy Ekblom	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland	8:40.86

See also

• 1976 Men's Olympic 3000 m Steeplechase (Montreal)
• 1978 Men's European Championships 3000 m Steeplechase (Prague)
• 1982 Men's European Championships 3000 m Steeplechase (Athens)
• 1983 Men's World Championships 3000 m Steeplechase (Helsinki)
• 1984 Men's Olympic 3000 m Steeplechase (Los Angeles)
• 1986 Men's European Championships 3000 m Steeplechase (Stuttgart)

External links

• Results
• Event overview at Olympedia.org