2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the 2023 World Championships
Venue	National Athletics Centre
Dates	19 August (heats) 20 August (semi-finals) 23 August (final)
Competitors	57 from 34 nations
Winning time	3:29.38
Medalists
Josh Kerr    Great Britain   Jakob Ingebrigtsen    Norway   Narve Gilje Nordås    Norway
←  2022 2025  →

The men's 1500 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest from 19 to 23 August 2023. ^[1] The winning margin was 0.27 seconds.

Summary

In 2022 the Olympic champion and red-hot favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen had run a relatively conservative race, only to be tactically outclassed by the Scot Jake Wightman, who held the shoulder and then attacked the Norwegian with half a lap to run. Wightman and his coach had theorised that the Diamond League season with its ubiquitous pacemakers had given Ingebrigtsen a false sense of invulnerability that would tell if he chose to front run. Events had seemed to prove the truth of the theory. In discovering a template to defeat the Olympic prodigy, the question was had Wightman found the weakness in Ingebrigtsen, or simply given the Norwegian a lesson he would use to reassert his primacy.

The reigning champion was ruled out by injury, and Ingebrigtsen sought to neutralise the kick of anyone considering repeating the tactic of the Scot, taking to the front early and winding up the pace. But in a remarkable turn of events, Josh Kerr from Great Britain, Scotland and Edinburgh Athletics Club - who had been a friend and club team mate of Wightman since his early teens - displayed staggering self-confidence as he ignored the perils of following the hard pace, moved to the Olympic champion's shoulder, and executed once more the Wightman solution, surging past the favorite in the last 200 metres. Ingebrigtsen, the anticipated frontrunner, settled for the silver medal for a second successive year behind a Great Britain jersey, while his fellow countryman Narve Gilje Nordås claimed the bronze.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows: ^[2]

Record	Athlete & Nat.	Perf.	Location	Date
World record	Hicham El Guerrouj  (MAR)	3:26.00	Rome, Italy	14 July 1998
Championship record		3:27.65	Seville, Spain	24 August 1999
World Leading	Jakob Ingebrigtsen  (NOR)	3:27.14	Chórzow, Poland	16 July 2023
African Record	Hicham El Guerrouj  (MAR)	3:26.00	Rome, Italy	14 July 1998
Asian Record	Rashid Ramzi  (BHR)	3:29.14	Rome, Italy	14 July 2006
North, Central American and Caribbean record	Yared Nuguse  (USA)	3:29.02	Oslo, Norway	15 June 2023
South American Record	Hudson Santos de Souza  (BRA)	3:33.25	Rieti, Italy	28 August 2005
European Record	Jakob Ingebrigtsen  (NOR)	3:27.14	Chórzow, Poland	16 July 2023
Oceanian record	Olli Hoare  (AUS)	3:29.41	Oslo, Norway	15 June 2023

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 3:34.20. ^[3]

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC +2), was as follows:

Date	Time	Round
19 August	19:02	Heats
20 August	17:35	Semi-finals
23 August	21:15	Final

Results

Heats

First 6 of each heat (Q) qualify to the semi-finals. ^[4]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway  (NOR)	3:33.94	Q
2	1	Josh Kerr	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:34.00	Q
3	4	Abel Kipsang	Kenya  (KEN)	3:34.08	Q
4	4	Yared Nuguse	United States  (USA)	3:34.16	Q
5	4	Adam Spencer	Australia  (AUS)	3:34.17	Q
6	1	Reynold Cheruiyot	Kenya  (KEN)	3:34.24	Q
7	3	Niels Laros	Netherlands  (NED)	3:34.25	Q
8	4	Charles Grethen	Luxembourg  (LUX)	3:34.32	Q, SB
9	3	Mohamed Katir	Spain  (ESP)	3:34.34	Q
10	1	Adel Mechaal	Spain  (ESP)	3:34.35	Q
11	1	Isaac Nader	Portugal  (POR)	3:34.36	Q
12	3	Cole Hocker	United States  (USA)	3:34.43	Q
13	3	Pietro Arese	Italy  (ITA)	3:34.48	Q
14	1	Charles Philibert-Thiboutot	Canada  (CAN)	3:34.60	Q
15	4	Elliot Giles	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:34.63	Q
16	3	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway  (NOR)	3:34.67	Q
17	4	Andrew Coscoran	Ireland  (IRL)	3:34.75	Q
18	4	Ossama Meslek	Italy  (ITA)	3:35.12
19	3	Azeddine Habz	France  (FRA)	3:35.16	Q
20	4	Salim Keddar	Algeria  (ALG)	3:35.17
21	1	Amos Bartelsmeyer	Germany  (GER)	3:35.44
22	4	Jochem Vermeulen	Belgium  (BEL)	3:35.45
23	4	Anass Essayi	Morocco  (MAR)	3:35.63
24	3	Stewart McSweyn	Australia  (AUS)	3:36.01
25	4	Michał Rozmys	Poland  (POL)	3:36.26	SB
26	4	Raphael Pallitsch	Austria  (AUT)	3:36.47	PB
27	1	Samuel Zeleke	Ethiopia  (ETH)	3:36.57
28	3	Kieran Lumb	Canada  (CAN)	3:36.66
29	3	Abdellatif Sadiki	Morocco  (MAR)	3:37.19
30	4	Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen	Denmark  (DEN)	3:37.27	PB
31	3	Elzan Bibić	Serbia  (SRB)	3:37.45
32	3	István Szögi	Hungary  (HUN)	3:37.57
33	1	Abraham Guem	South Sudan  (SSD)	3:37.85	PB
34	3	Abu Mayanja	Uganda  (UGA)	3:38.15
35	3	Ajay Kumar Saroj	India  (IND)	3:38.24	PB
36	3	Diego Lacamoire  [ de ]	Argentina  (ARG)	3:38.92
37	1	Ryan Mphahlele	South Africa  (RSA)	3:39.16
38	1	Yervand Mkrtchyan	Armenia  (ARM)	3:39.35	NR
39	3	Ismael Debjani	Belgium  (BEL)	3:39.73
40	1	Nicholas Griggs	Ireland  (IRL)	3:40.72
41	4	Adisu Girma	Ethiopia  (ETH)	3:45.86
42	1	Matthew Ramsden	Australia  (AUS)	3:46.45	qR
43	2	Mario García	Spain  (ESP)	3:46.77	Q
44	2	Tshepo Tshite	South Africa  (RSA)	3:46.79	Q
45	2	Neil Gourley	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:46.87	Q
46	2	Samuel Tanner	New Zealand  (NZL)	3:46.93	Q
47	2	Ruben Verheyden	Belgium  (BEL)	3:47.02	Q
48	2	Timothy Cheruiyot	Kenya  (KEN)	3:47.09	Q
49	2	Joonas Rinne	Finland  (FIN)	3:47.16
50	2	Joe Waskom	United States  (USA)	3:47.26
51	2	Hicham Akankam	Morocco  (MAR)	3:47.45
52	2	Luke McCann	Ireland  (IRL)	3:47.48
53	2	Teddese Lemi	Ethiopia  (ETH)	3:47.49
54	2	Rob Napolitano	Puerto Rico  (PUR)	3:48.29
55	2	Joao Bussotti	Italy  (ITA)	3:48.55
56	2	Julian Ranc	France  (FRA)	3:48.63
57	1	Tom Elmer	Switzerland  (SUI)	3:55.72	qR
58	1	Emil Danielsson	Sweden  (SWE)	3:57.70	qR

Semi-finals

First 6 of each semi-final (Q) qualify to the final. ^[5]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Yared Nuguse	United States  (USA)	3:32.69	Q
2	1	Abel Kipsang	Kenya  (KEN)	3:32.72	Q
3	1	Niels Laros	Netherlands  (NED)	3:32.74	Q
4	1	Azeddine Habz	France  (FRA)	3:32.79	Q
5	1	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway  (NOR)	3:32.81	Q
6	1	Neil Gourley	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:32.97	Q
7	1	Tshepo Tshite	South Africa  (RSA)	3:32.98
8	1	Pietro Arese	Italy  (ITA)	3:33.11
9	1	Adel Mechaal	Spain  (ESP)	3:33.33
10	1	Mohamed Katir	Spain  (ESP)	3:33.56
11	1	Ruben Verheyden	Belgium  (BEL)	3:33.96
12	1	Emil Danielsson	Sweden  (SWE)	3:34.16
13	2	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway  (NOR)	3:34.98	Q
14	2	Josh Kerr	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:35.14	Q
15	2	Cole Hocker	United States  (USA)	3:35.23	Q
16	2	Mario García	Spain  (ESP)	3:35.26	Q
17	2	Isaac Nader	Portugal  (POR)	3:35.31	Q
18	2	Reynold Cheruiyot	Kenya  (KEN)	3:35.53	Q
19	2	Charles Grethen	Luxembourg  (LUX)	3:36.11
20	2	Samuel Tanner	New Zealand  (NZL)	3:36.58
21	1	Matthew Ramsden	Australia  (AUS)	3:36.83
22	1	Andrew Coscoran	Ireland  (IRL)	3:37.39
23	2	Timothy Cheruiyot	Kenya  (KEN)	3:37.40
24	2	Charles Philibert-Thiboutot	Canada  (CAN)	3:37.41
25	2	Tom Elmer	Switzerland  (SUI)	3:38.33
26	2	Elliot Giles	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:39.05
27	2	Adam Spencer	Australia  (AUS)	3:42.10

Final

The final was started on 23 August at 21:16. ^[6]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Josh Kerr	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:29.38	SB
	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway  (NOR)	3:29.65
	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway  (NOR)	3:29.68
4	Abel Kipsang	Kenya  (KEN)	3:29.89
5	Yared Nuguse	United States  (USA)	3:30.25
6	Mario García	Spain  (ESP)	3:30.26
7	Cole Hocker	United States  (USA)	3:30.70	PB
8	Reynold Cheruiyot	Kenya  (KEN)	3:30.78
9	Neil Gourley	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	3:31.10
10	Niels Laros	Netherlands  (NED)	3:31.25	NR
11	Azeddine Habz	France  (FRA)	3:33.14
12	Isaac Nader	Portugal  (POR)	3:35.41

References

1. "Timetable | Budapest 23 - World Athletics" (PDF). 19 August 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
2. "1500 Metres Men − Records". World Athletics . Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
3. "Qualification system published for World Athletics Championships Budapest 23" (PDF). World Athletics . worldathletics.org. 19 August 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
4. "Summary - 1500 Metres Men - Round 1" (PDF). World Athletics . 19 August 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
5. "Summary - 1500 Metres Men - Semi-finals" (PDF). World Athletics . 20 August 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
6. "1500 Metres Men - Final" (PDF). World Athletics . 23 August 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 December 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2024.