The 1,500 meter run (approximately 0.932 miles or 4921 feet, 3.1 inches in distance) is the premier middle distance track event.
In modern times, the 1,500 meter run has become more like a prolonged quarter-mile race with each lap averaging under 55 seconds during the world-record race run by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1998 in Rome, Italy.[1] 1,500 meters is three and three-quarter laps around a 400 meter track. During the 1970s and 1980s this race was dominated by British runners, along with an occasional Finn, American, or New Zealander, but through the 1990s a large number of African runners began to take over in being the masters of this race, with runners from Kenya, Morocco, and Algeria winning the Olympic gold medals.
In the Modern Olympic Games, the men's 1,500 m race has been contested from the beginning, and at every Olympiad since. The first winner, in 1896, was Edwin Flack of Australia, who also won the first gold medal in the 800 meter race. The women's 1,500 m race was first added to the Summer Olympics in 1972, and the winner of the first gold medal was Lyudmila Bragina of the Soviet Union. During the Olympiads of 1972 through 2008, the women's 1,500 m race has been won by three Soviets plus one Russian, one Italian, one Romanian, one Briton, one Kenyan, and two Algerians, with the latter two winners being a big step forward for the women of Moslem countries, and for North Africa as a whole.
In American high schools, the one-mile run (which is 1609.344 meters in lenght) and the 1,600 m run, also colloquially referred to as "metric mile," are more frequently run than the 1,500 m run, since Imperial units are better-known in America. Which distance is used depends on which state the high school is in, and, for convenience, national rankings are standardized by converting all 1,600 m run times to their mile run equivalents.[citation needed]
Contents |
| Rank | Res. | Athlete | Nation | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3:26.00 | Hicham El Guerrouj |  Morocco |
14 July 1998 | Rome |
| 2. | 3:26.34 | Bernard Lagat |  Kenya |
24 August 2001 | Brussels |
| 3. | 3:27.37 | Noureddine Morceli |  Algeria |
12 July 1995 | Nice |
| 4. | 3:28.12 | Noah Ngeny | Kenya |
11 August 2000 | Zürich |
| 5. | 3:28.95 | Fermín Cacho |  Spain |
13 August 1997 | Zürich |
| 6. | 3:28.98 | Mehdi Baala |  France |
5 September 2003 | Brussels |
| 7. | 3:29.02 | Daniel Kipchirchir Komen | Kenya |
9 July 2006 | Rome |
| 8. | 3:29.14 | Rashid Ramzi |  Bahrain |
14 July 2006 | Rome |
| 9. | 3:29.18 | Vénuste Niyongabo |  Burundi |
22 August 1997 | Brussels |
| 10. | 3:29.29 | William Chirchir | Kenya |
24 August 2001 | Brussels |
| Rank | Res. | Athlete | Nation | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3:50.46 | Yunxia Qu |  China |
11 September 1993 | Beijing |
| 2. | 3:50.98 | Bo Jiang | China |
18 October 1997 | Shanghai |
| 3. | 3:51.34 | Yinglai Lang | China |
18 October 1997 | Shanghai |
| 4. | 3:51.92 | Junxia Wang | China |
11 September 1993 | Beijing |
| 5. | 3:52.47 | Tatyana Kazankina |  Soviet Union |
13 August 1980 | Zürich |
| 6. | 3:53.91 | Lili Yin | China |
18 October 1997 | Shanghai |
| 7. | 3:53.96 | Paula Ivan |  Romania |
1 October 1988 | Seoul |
| 8. | 3:53.97 | Lixin Lan | China |
18 October 1997 | Shanghai |
| 9. | 3:54.23 | Olga Dvirna | Soviet Union |
27 July 1982 | Kiev |
| 10. | 3:54.52 | Ling Zhang | China |
18 October 1997 | Shanghai |
1,500 metres is also an event in swimming and speed skating. The world records for the distance in swimming are 14:10.10 (swum in a 25 metre pool) and 14:34.56 (swum in a 50 metre pool) by Grant Hackett, and 15:32.90 (swum in a 25 metre pool) and 15:42.54 by Kate Ziegler.
The world records for the distance in speed skating are 1:41.04 by Shani Davis and 1:51.79 by Cindy Klassen.[2]
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