1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 800 metres

These are the official results of the men's 800 metres event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total of 60 participating athletes, with eight qualifying heats, three semi-finals and the final held on 9 August 1983.

From the gun, World Junior Record holder and NCAA Champion Joaquim Cruz went out fast to get the lead, with Peter Elliott in lane 1 accelerating when he saw Cruz ahead of him, passing the break point swinging wide to go around Cruz but Cruz would not let him by. Coming off the turn, Elliott accelerated and ran past Cruz to take the lead at the bell in 50.58. Hans-Peter Ferner was next behind them, followed by Willi Wülbeck and Rob Druppers. Coming off the third turn, Cruz again accelerated to try to take back the lead. Down the backstretch, Cruz and Elliott ran shoulder to shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Elliott would not concede the position, Cruz running the final turn outside of Elliott still shoulder to shoulder with now Wülbeck watching the battle from two steps behind. Off the final turn, Cruz accelerated again to pull away from Elliott but Wülbeck went around the outside to sprint past both of them, unleaded to victory. Druppers came off the final turn several metres back, passed a fading Ferner and began sprinting, picking off Elliott and then Cruz just before the finish line.

Records

Existing records at the start of the event.

World Record	Template:Flagathlete	1:41.73	Florence, Italy	June 10, 1981
Championship Record	New event

Results

Qualifying heats

The qualifying heats took place on 7 August, with the 60 athletes involved being split into 8 heats. The first 2 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 8 fastest ( q ) qualified for the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	James Robinson	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.32	Q, Template:AthAbbr
2	Garry Cook	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.44	Q
3	Viktor Kalinkin	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.57	q
4	Christoph Ulmer	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.98
5	Jama Aden	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.69
6	Paul Gilbert	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:51.39
7	Khaled Khalifa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:52.84
8	Sekou Camara	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:59.90

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Matthias Assmann	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.45	Q
2	José Luíz Barbosa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.47	Q
3	Binko Kolev	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.49	q
4	Peter Bourke	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.15
5	Petru Drăgoescu	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.33
6	Bo Breigan	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.53
7	Mohammed Darwish	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:50.68

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Willi Wülbeck	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.55	Q
2	Philippe Dupont	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.62	Q
3	David Patrick	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.76	q
4	Babacar Niang	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.54
5	Donato Sabia	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.62
6	Sotirios Moutsanas	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.23
7	Vincent Confait	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:55.04
8	Jean-Marie Rudasinqwa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:55.12

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Detlef Wagenknecht	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.20	Q
2	Sammy Koskei	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.35	Q
3	Omer Khalifa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.67
4	Ronny Olsson	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.72
5	Simon Hoogewerf	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.92
Template:Hs	Charlie Oliver	Template:Flaglinkteam		Template:AthAbbr
Template:Hs	Ryszard Ostrowski	Template:Flaglinkteam		Template:AthAbbr

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Agberto Guimarães	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.30	Q
2	Alberto Juantorena	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.40	Q
3	Juma Ndiwa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.40
4	Mohamed Zahafi	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.43
5	Gordan Hinds	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:50.92
6	Didier Le Guillou	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:52.49
7	Ruthsel Martina	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:55.67

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	David Mack	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.84	Q, Template:AthAbbr
2	Jorma Härkönen	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.39	Q
3	Peter Elliott	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.53	q
4	José Marajo	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.78	q
5	Colomán Trabado	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.10	q
6	Kim Bock-ju	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.40
7	Tisbite Rakotoarisoa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:50.70
8	Antonio Cadio Paraiso	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:58.47

Heat 7

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Rob Druppers	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.12	Q
2	Joaquim Cruz	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.12	Q
3	Peter Pearless	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.22	q
4	Mike Solomon	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.30	q
5	Faouzi Lahbi	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.76
6	Gawain Guy	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.19
7	John Chappory	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:52.30

Heat 8

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Hans-Peter Ferner	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.34	Q
2	Michael Hillardt	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.44	Q
3	James Maina Boi	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.69
4	Mark Handelsman	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.02
5	Mohamed Alouini	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.09
6	William Wuycke	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:50.71
7	Luis Munguía	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:55.77
8	Clive Williams	Template:Flaglinkteam	2:03.64

Semi-finals

The semifinals took place on 8 August, with the 24 athletes involved being split into 3 heats. The first 2 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 2 fastest ( q ) qualified for the final.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Joaquim Cruz	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.62	Q, Template:AthAbbr
2	James Robinson	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.16	Q
3	Philippe Dupont	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.36
4	Viktor Kalinkin	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.83
5	Mike Solomon	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.10
6	Matthias Assmann	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.73
7	Michael Hillardt	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.64
Template:Hs	Alberto Juantorena	Template:Flaglinkteam		Template:AthAbbr

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Willi Wülbeck	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.21	Q
2	Agberto Guimarães	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.37	Q
3	José Marajo	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.39
4	David Mack	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.39
5	Colomán Trabado	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.85
6	Garry Cook	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.48
7	Sammy Koskei	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.92
8	Binko Kolev	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:50.23

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Hans-Peter Ferner	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.24	Q, Template:AthAbbr
2	David Patrick	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.30	Q
3	Peter Elliott	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.38	q
4	Rob Druppers	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.55	q
5	Detlef Wagenknecht	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.70
6	Peter Pearless	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:47.82
7	José Luíz Barbosa	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:48.05
8	Jorma Härkönen	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:49.39

Final

The final took place on August 9.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Willi Wülbeck	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:43.65	Template:AthAbbr
	Rob Druppers	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:44.20
	Joaquim Cruz	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:44.27
4	Peter Elliott	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:44.87
5	James Robinson	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.12
6	Agberto Guimarães	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.46
7	Hans-Peter Ferner	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:45.74
8	David Patrick	Template:Flaglinkteam	1:46.56

References

• Results