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The '1,500 metres' is a premier middle distance track event. It is judged a very tough distance to perform at mentally. The distance is often witness to some of the more tactical, more physical races in the sport, as many championship races are won in the final few metres.
In modern times, it has become more of a prolonged sprint with each lap averaging under 55 seconds for the world record performance by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1998 at Rome. Thus, speed is necessary, and it seems that the more aerobic conditioning, the better. The 1500 is three and three-quarter laps around a 400 metre track. Through the 1980s the event was dominated by British runners, but through the 1990s, the African runners began to take over, with runners from Kenya, Morocco and Algeria winning the Olympic titles.
In American high schools, the one mile (which is approximately 1609 m) and 1600m, also colloquially referred to as "the mile," are more frequently run than the 1500m, since Imperial units are more well known in the US. Which is used depends on the state the high school is in, and, for convenience, national rankings are standardized by converting all 1600m times to their one mile equivalents.

Contents

Famous 1500 m runners

Men

Top ten fastest athletes over 1500 metres - men

Women

Top ten fastest athletes over 1500 metres - women

Other Sports

References

Famous 1500 m runners

Men

★ Saïd Aouita

★ Fermín Cacho

★ Sebastian Coe

★ Steve Cram

★ Herb Elliott

★ Hicham El Guerrouj

★ Bernard Lagat

★ John Landy

★ Noureddine Morceli

★ Venuste Niyongabo

★ Steve Ovett

★ Jim Ryun

★ Peter Snell

★ John Walker

★ Roger Bannister

★ Rui Silva

★ Alan Webb

Top ten fastest athletes over 1500 metres - men

Updated July 25, 2007.

Rank	Res.	Athlete	Nation	Date	Place
1.	'3:26.00'	Hicham El Guerrouj		14 july 1998	Rome
2.	'3:26.34'	Bernard Lagat		24 august 2001	Brussels
3.	'3:27.37'	Noureddine Morceli		12 july 1995	Nice
4.	'3:28.12'	Noah Ngeny		11 august 2000	Zürich
5.	'3:28.95'	Fermín Cacho		13 august 1997	Zürich
6.	'3:28.98'	Mehdi Baala		5 september 2003	Brussels
7.	'3:29.02'	Daniel Kipchirchir Komen		14 july 2006	Rome
8.	'3:29.14'	Rashid Ramzi		14 july 2006	Rome
9.	'3:29.18'	Vénuste Niyongabo		22 august 1997	Brussels
10.	'3:29.29'	William Chirchir		24 august 2001	Brussels

Women

★ Hassiba Boulmerka

★ Kelly Holmes

★ Tatyana Kazankina

★ Gabriela Szabo

Top ten fastest athletes over 1500 metres - women

Updated May 18 2006.

Rank	Res.	Athlete	Nation	Date	Place
1.	'3:50.46'	Qu Yunxia		11 september 1993	Beijing
2.	'3:50.98'	Jiang Bo		18 october 1997	Shanghai
3.	'3:51.34'	Lang Yinglai		18 october 1997	Shanghai
4.	'3:51.92'	Wang Junxia		11 september 1993	Beijing
5.	'3:52.47'	Tatyana Kazankina		13 august 1980	Zürich
6.	'3:53.91'	Yin Lili		18 october 1997	Shanghai
7.	'3:53.96'	Paula Ivan		1 october 1988	Seoul
8.	'3:53.97'	Lan Lixin		18 october 1997	Shanghai
9.	'3:54.23'	Olga Dvirna		27 july 1982	Kiev
10.	'3:54.52'	Zhang Ling		18 october 1997	Shanghai

Other Sports

1,500 metres is also an event in swimming and speed skating. The world records for the distance in swimming are 14:10.10 by Grant Hackett and 15:42.39 by Laure Manaudou. Both records were set in Short course pools.
The world records for the distance in speed skating are 1:42.68 by Shani Davis and 1:51.79 by Cindy Klassen.^[1]

References

1. http://www.geocities.com/speedsk8fan/sskwr.html