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These are the official results of the Men's 800 metres event at the 1978 European Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.^[1]^[2] The final was held on 31 August 1978.^[3]

The two favourites for the race were Steve Ovett^[4] and Sebastian Coe^[5] Ovett had won silver at 800 m at the previous European Championships in 1974 in Rome,^[6] and had won the 1500m, in spectacular fashion, at the IAAF World Cup^[7] the previous year (he was to remain unbeaten at that distance until the 1980 Olympics).^[8] Coe was the new British record holder at 800 m and the fastest man that year leading into the race at 800 m.^[9]

The race was billed in the press, the British press in particular, as a 'Coe versus Ovett' contest - a race that was the start of a rivalry that was to dominate not only British and European but World middle-distance running over the next few years.^[10]^[11] However, by concentrating on Coe and Ovett the press were ignoring the other talents in the race, including East Germany's Olaf Beyer.^[12]

In the race itself, Coe led from the front setting a blistering first lap pace, going through the bell in a suicidal 49.32 s. At 700 m, he was spent and Ovett kicked past him for home. However, the fast-finishing Beyer first caught Coe and then Ovett to strike gold, in doing so recording the fastest time that year.^[13]

Medalists

Gold	Olaf Beyer East Germany
Silver	Steve Ovett Great Britain
Bronze	Sebastian Coe Great Britain

Results

Final

31 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Olaf Beyer	East Germany	1:43.84	CR
	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1:44.09
	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1:44.76
4	Anatoliy Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1:45.79
5	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1:46.24
6	Andreas Busse	East Germany	1:47.1
7	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1:47.4
8	José Marajo	France	1:53.4

Semi-finals

30 August

Semi-final 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1:47.44	Q
2	Andreas Busse	East Germany	1:47.6	Q
3	José Marajo	France	1:47.7	Q
4	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1:47.8	Q
5	Markku Taskinen	Finland	1:47.9
6	Uwe Becker	West Germany	1:48.2
7	Detlef Wagenknecht	East Germany	1:48.5
8	Arno Körmeling	Netherlands	1:49.2

Semi-final 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1:46.51	Q
2	Olaf Beyer	East Germany	1:46.74	Q
3	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1:46.94	Q
4	Anatoliy Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1:47.2	Q
5	Hans-Peter Ferner	West Germany	1:47.4
6	Sermet Timurlenk	Turkey	1:47.9
7	Roger Milhau	France	1:48.9
8	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	1:49.3

Heats

29 August

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Steve Ovett	Great Britain	1:47.80	Q
2	Hans-Peter Ferner	West Germany	1:48.1	Q
3	Markku Taskinen	Finland	1:48.3	Q
4	Detlef Wagenknecht	East Germany	1:48.4	q
5	Vladimir Malozemlin	Soviet Union	1:48.6
6	Carlo Grippo	Italy	1:48.6

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Olaf Beyer	East Germany	1:47.72	Q
2	Arno Körmeling	Netherlands	1:48.1	Q
3	Günther Hasler	Liechtenstein	1:48.5	Q
4	Justin Gloden	Luxembourg	1:49.0
5	David O’Donnell	Great Britain	1:49.3

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Andreas Busse	East Germany	1:49.08	Q
2	José Marajo	France	1:49.4	Q
3	Anatoliy Reshetnyak	Soviet Union	1:49.5	Q
4	Milovan Savić	Yugoslavia	1:50.0
5	Milan Timko	Czechoslovakia	1:50.5
6	Panagiotis Pallikaris	Greece	1:51.6

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	1:46.82	Q
2	Roger Milhau	France	1:47.07	Q
3	Uwe Becker	West Germany	1:47.13	Q
4	Dragan Životić	Yugoslavia	1:47.18	q
5	Vladimir Podolyako	Soviet Union	1:47.19	q
6	Sermet Timurlenk	Turkey	1:47.23	q
7	Jón Didriksson	Iceland	1:50.4