The
800 metres
The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...
at the
World Championships in Athletics
The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
has been contested by both men and women since the inaugural edition in 1983. It is the second most prestigious title in the discipline after the
800 metres at the Olympics
The 800 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 800 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was first held in 1928, making it t ...
. The competition format typically has two qualifying rounds leading to a final between eight athletes.
The
championship records for the event are 1:43.06 for men, set by
Billy Konchellah
Billy Komintai Konchellah (born 20 October 1961 in Kilgoris, Kenya) is a former 800 m runner who won two World Championship gold medals in Rome 1987 and Tokyo 1991.
Career
His victory in the 1991 final was unexpected. He sprinted past Paul Ereng ...
in 1987, and 1:54.68 for women, set by
Jarmila Kratochvílová
Jarmila Kratochvílová (; born 26 January 1951, in Golčův Jeníkov) is a Czech people, Czech former track and field athlete. She won the 400 metres and 800 metres at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics, 1983 World Championships, setting a ...
in 1983. Set at the inaugural championships, Kratochvílová's record is the longest-standing record of the competition. The
800 m world record has never been broken at the competition by either men or women.
IAAF World Championships: IAAF Statistics Handbook Daegu 2011
pp. 595–6
archived
. IAAF. Retrieved on 2015-07-06.
Maria Mutola
Maria de Lurdes Mutola ( ; born 27 October 1972) is a retired female track and field athlete from Mozambique who specialised in the 800 metres running event. She is only the fourth female track and field athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. ...
is the most successful athlete of the event: from a period spanning 1993 to 2003, she won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze in the World Championships 800 m. The most successful man is Wilson Kipketer
Wilson Kosgei Kipketer (born 12 December 1972) is a Danish former middle distance runner. He is the second fastest of all time over 800 meters, setting the world record and breaking his own record two more times all in 1997. He dominated the 8 ...
, who won three straight titles from 1995 to 1999. Only two other people, Billy Konchellah and Ana Fidelia Quirot
Ana Fidelia Quirot Moré (; born March 23, 1963) is a former track and field athlete from Cuba, who specialised in the 800 metres but was also successful over 400 m. At 800 metres, she is a two-time World Champion (1995, 1997) and a two-time Oly ...
, have won two world championship titles in the event. Yuriy Borzakovskiy
Yuriy Mikhailovich Borzakovskiy (russian: Юрий Михайлович Борзаковский, , born 12 April 1981) is a Russian middle-distance runner specializing in the 800 metres.
Early life
Borzakovskiy was born at Kratovo, in the Mos ...
, though never a champion, has won the most medals in the men's competition, with two silver and two bronze medals.
Kenya
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is the most successful nation in the discipline, with five gold medals in the men's, two in the women's race, and a total of 13 medals overall. The actions of Mutola and Kipketer alone rank Mozambique at the top of the women's rankings and Denmark second in the men's medal table. Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
—the second most successful nation among women—has won three women's gold medals. South Africa is the only nation besides Kenya to have provided both a men's and women's winner. Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
has the second highest overall medal tally, with eleven medals across the men's and women's divisions, but it has also provided six of the eight athletes sanctioned for doping at this World Championship distance.
Age
*All information from IAAF
* The exact date of birth of the youngest male participant, Mohamed Abd el Rahman
Muhammad was an Islamic prophet and a religious and political leader who preached and established Islam.
Muhammad and variations may also refer to:
*Muhammad (name), a given name and surname, and list of people with the name and its variations
...
, is unknown but he remains the youngest given his known year of birth and calculating from 1 January of that year.
Doping
A total of nine athletes, all of them women and seven of them Russian, have had their 800 m results annulled at the World Championships due to doping infractions. The first was Delisa Floyd
Delisa Walton-Floyd (born Delisa Walton, 28 July 1961) is a former World-Class middle distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres; she was a two-time National Collegiate champion, and two-time U.S. Open champion in her event. Delisa Walton-F ...
of the United States (1991 semi-finalist) was among the first few women to be disqualified from the championships for doping. The 1993 finalist Liliya Nurutdinova
Liliya Foatovna Nurutdinova (russian: Лилия Фоатовна Нурутдинова; born 15 December 1963) is a retired middle-distance runner who represented the Soviet Union and the Unified Team.
Her greatest achievement was the 1992 Ol ...
was the only woman disqualified at the 1993 championships. Another Russian, Lyubov Tsyoma
Lyubov Kiryukhina-Tsyoma (born 19 May 1963, russian: Любовь Кирюхина-Цёма) is a retired middle-distance runner who represented the Soviet Union and later Russia. She specialized in the 800 metres. She won bronze medals indoors at ...
, had her semi-final run in 1997 annulled. Ten years passed without incident until a third Russian, Svetlana Cherkasova
Svetlana Sergeyevna Cherkasova (russian: Светлана Сергеевна Черкасова; born May 20, 1978) is a Russian middle-distance runner. In the 800 metres, she finished eighth at 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. ...
was struck from the heats for doping in 2007.
Two women semi-finalists were disqualified for doping in 2009: a fourth Russian, Svetlana Klyuka
Svetlana Vasiliyevna Klyuka (russian: Светлана Васильевна Клюка; born 27 December 1978 in Belogorsk, Amur Oblast) is a Russian middle distance runner. Klyuka ran the sixth fastest women's 800m time in the world in 2006 (1:57: ...
, and Tetiana Petlyuk
Tetiana Hryhorivna Petlyuk or Tetiana Hryhorivna Petliuk ( uk, Тетяна Григорівна Петлюк; born 22 February 1982) is a Ukrainian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. Her personal best time is 1:57.34 minutes, achieved in ...
of Ukraine. Petlyuk was retrospectively banned through a biological passport
An athlete biological passport is an individual electronic record for professional athletes, in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time. Doping violations can be detected by n ...
anomaly and this also took in her run at the 2011 World Championships. That same year two more Russians were disqualified, both of them finalists: Yuliya Rusanova
Yuliya Igorevna Stepanova (née Rusanova; russian: Ю́лия И́горевна Степанова (Русанова); born 3 July 1986) is a Russian runner who specializes in the 800 metres track event. Stepanova was also an informant for WA ...
and Yekaterina Kostetskaya. In 2017, the third Russian finalist, gold medalist Mariya Savinova
Mariya Sergeyevna Savinova (russian: Мария Сергеевна Савинова; born 13 August 1985) is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 800-metres event. In 2017, she was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspen ...
was banned for life, retroactive to 2010, making it a clean sweep of disqualified Russians in 2011, as well as taking Savinova's silver in 2013. Both times Alysia Johnson Montaño
''Alysia'' is a luxury charter Motor yacht owned by Greek businessman Andreas Liveras. She was constructed in steel during 2006 by the Neorion ship-yard for a cost of about 116 million EUR. This made her ''Forbes'' magazine's most expensive yacht ...
advanced to take the bronze medal.
Medalists
Men
Multiple medalists
Medalists by country
Women
Multiple medalists
Medalists by country
Championship record progression
Men
Women
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Official IAAF website
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
World Championships in Athletics 800 metres
Events at the World Athletics Championships