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The men's 1500 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium between 15–19 August. The winning margin was 0.08 seconds, which as of 2024 is the narrowest winning margin in the history of this event. Among the favoured athletes in the event were defending champion Bernard Lagat, European champion Mehdi Baala, and the Kenyan season leaders Asbel Kiprop, Haron Keitany and Augustine Choge.^[1]

All the favoured athletes progressed through a series of tactically-run heats on the first day of competition, with Baala, Kiprop, Choge and Deresse Mekonnen the four race winners.^[2] Moroccan Amine Laalou won the first semi-final, followed by Americans Lopez Lomong and Lagat, while Kiprop and Leonel Manzano both finished quickly to take the top two qualifying spots in the second race. The only high-profile athlete to be eliminated in the semi-finals was Keitany, who did not start, putting an end to any hopes of a Kenyan medal sweep.^[3]

The final race began slowly and, as the athletes reached the last lap, they remained in a tight pack led by Mekonnen. Choge and Mohamed Moustaoui closely followed as he approached the final straight, but the race remained open.^[4] Yusuf Saad Kamel took the lead in the final straight, scoring a surprise gold medal.^[5] Mekonnen maintained his pace to take the silver medal and defending champion Lagat had a quick burst near the finish to win the bronze. Kiprop, one of the pre-race favourites, left himself too much ground to cover, eventually ending up fourth, with Choge and Baala alongside him.^[4]

Bahrain's Kamel, born in Kenya as Gregory Konchellah, followed in the footsteps of his father Billy Konchellah, who won the 800 m at the 1987 and 1991 World Championships.^[5] Mekonnen's silver was Ethiopia's first ever World Championship medal in the 1500 m.^[4] Lagat's bronze was his third in the 1500 m, after his silver in 2001 and a gold in 2007.^[5]

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Yusuf Saad Kamel Bahrain (BHR)	Deresse Mekonnen Ethiopia (ETH)	Bernard Lagat United States (USA)

Records

World record	Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)	3:26.00	Rome, Italy	14 July 1998
Championship record	Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)	3:27.65	Seville, Spain	14 August 1999
World Leading	Augustine Choge (KEN)	3:29.47	Berlin, Germany	14 June 2009
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 American record	Bernard Lagat (USA)	3:29.30	Rieti, Italy	28 August 2005
South American record	Hudson de Souza (BRA)	3:33.25	Rieti, Italy	28 August 2005
European record	Fermín Cacho (ESP)	3:28.95	Zürich, Switzerland	13 August 1997
Oceanian record	Simon Doyle (AUS)	3:31.96	Stockholm, Sweden	3 July 1991

Qualification standards

A time	B time
3:36.20	3:39.30

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
August 15, 2009	18:15	Heats
August 17, 2009	20:10	Semifinals
August 19, 2009	20:25	Final

Results

Heats

Qualification: First 5 in each heat(Q) and the next 4 fastest(q) advance to the semifinal.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Deresse Mekonnen	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:37.04	Q
2	4	Haron Keitany	Kenya (KEN)	3:37.13	Q
3	4	James Brewer	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	3:37.17	Q, PB
4	4	Mohamed Moustaoui	Morocco (MAR)	3:37.34	Q
5	4	Yusuf Saad Kamel	Bahrain (BHR)	3:37.59	Q
6	4	Reyes Estévez	Spain (ESP)	3:38.23	q, SB
7	4	Nathan Brannen	Canada (CAN)	3:38.35	q
8	4	Dorian Ulrey	United States (USA)	3:38.86	q
9	4	Taoufik Makhloufi	Algeria (ALG)	3:40.04	q
10	4	Stefan Eberhardt	Germany (GER)	3:40.05
11	2	Asbel Kiprop	Kenya (KEN)	3:41.42	Q
12	2	Bernard Lagat	United States (USA)	3:41.60	Q
13	2	Juan Carlos Higuero	Spain (ESP)	3:41.77	Q
14	2	Rui Silva	Portugal (POR)	3:41.98	Q
15	4	Mounir Yemmouni	France (FRA)	3:42.06
16	2	Peter van der Westhuizen	South Africa (RSA)	3:42.33	Q
17	2	Antar Zerguelaïne	Algeria (ALG)	3:42.37
18	2	Thomas Chamney	Ireland (IRL)	3:42.54
19	2	Thomas Lancashire	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	3:42.68
20	1	Mehdi Baala	France (FRA)	3:42.77	Q
21	1	Leonel Manzano	United States (USA)	3:42.87	Q
22	1	Abdalaati Iguider	Morocco (MAR)	3:42.88	Q
23	1	Jeffrey Riseley	Australia (AUS)	3:43.03	Q
24	1	Belal Mansoor Ali	Bahrain (BHR)	3:43.06	Q
25	1	Arturo Casado	Spain (ESP)	3:43.21
26	1	Mekonnen Gebremedhin	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:43.22
27	1	Christian Obrist	Italy (ITA)	3:43.41
28	4	Tiidrek Nurme	Estonia (EST)	3:43.73	SB
29	1	Hais Welday	Eritrea (ERI)	3:43.84
30	2	Carsten Schlangen	Germany (GER)	3:44.00
31	1	Goran Nava	Serbia (SRB)	3:44.13
32	3	Augustine Kiprono Choge	Kenya (KEN)	3:44.73	Q
33	3	Amine Laâlou	Morocco (MAR)	3:44.75	Q
34	2	Ryan Gregson	Australia (AUS)	3:44.79
35	3	Lopez Lomong	United States (USA)	3:44.89	Q
36	3	Andrew Baddeley	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	3:45.23	Q
37	3	Henok Legesse	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:45.63	Q
38	3	Tarek Boukensa	Algeria (ALG)	3:45.65
39	3	Kristof van Malderen	Belgium (BEL)	3:46.03
40	3	Yoann Kowal	France (FRA)	3:46.42
41	3	Johan Cronje	South Africa (RSA)	3:46.45
42	3	Jeremy Roff	Australia (AUS)	3:47.08
43	2	Abdalla Abdelgadir	Sudan (SUD)	3:47.78
44	1	Mohammed Othman Shaween	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	3:49.03
45	2	Byron Piedra	Ecuador (ECU)	3:49.60
46	3	Mohamad Al-Garni	Qatar (QAT)	3:50.55
47	1	Chauncy Master	Malawi (MAW)	3:50.73
48	3	Álvaro Vásquez	Nicaragua (NCA)	3:55.06	PB
49	4	Víctor Martínez	Andorra (AND)	4:02.10	SB
50	2	Hem Bunting	Cambodia (CAM)	4:08.64	SB
51	1	Abdallahi Nanou	Mauritania (MTN)	4:09.77	PB
52	2	Benjamín Enzema	Equatorial Guinea (GEQ)	4:13.17	PB
53	3	Antoine Berlin	Monaco (MON)	4:27.52
	1	Boampouguini Djigban	Togo (TOG)	DNF

Key: PB = Personal best, Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place, SB = Seasonal best

Semifinals

Qualification: First 5 in each semifinal(Q) and the next 2 fastest(q) advance to the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Asbel Kiprop	Kenya (KEN)	3:36.24	Q
2	2	Leonel Manzano	United States (USA)	3:36.29	Q
3	2	Augustine Kiprono Choge	Kenya (KEN)	3:36.43	Q
4	1	Amine Laâlou	Morocco (MAR)	3:36.68	Q
5	1	Lopez Lomong	United States (USA)	3:36.75	Q
6	1	Bernard Lagat	United States (USA)	3:36.86	Q
6	2	Deresse Mekonnen	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:36.86	Q
8	1	Yusuf Saad Kamel	Bahrain (BHR)	3:36.87	Q
8	2	Belal Mansoor Ali	Bahrain (BHR)	3:36.87	Q
10	2	Mohamed Moustaoui	Morocco (MAR)	3:36.94	q
11	1	Mehdi Baala	France (FRA)	3:37.07	Q
12	2	Abdalaati Iguider	Morocco (MAR)	3:37.19	q
13	1	James Brewer	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	3:37.27
14	1	Juan Carlos Higuero	Spain (ESP)	3:37.33
15	2	Reyes Estévez	Spain (ESP)	3:37.55	SB
16	1	Henok Legesse	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:37.79
17	2	Taoufik Makhloufi	Algeria (ALG)	3:37.87
18	2	Jeffrey Riseley	Australia (AUS)	3:38.00
19	2	Andrew Baddeley	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	3:38.23
20	1	Nathan Brannen	Canada (CAN)	3:38.97
21	2	Dorian Ulrey	United States (USA)	3:39.33
22	1	Peter van der Westhuizen	South Africa (RSA)	3:40.00
23	1	Rui Silva	Portugal (POR)	3:41.30
	1	Haron Keitany	Kenya (KEN)	DNS

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
	Yusuf Saad Kamel	Bahrain (BHR)	3:35.93
	Deresse Mekonnen	Ethiopia (ETH)	3:36.01
	Bernard Lagat	United States (USA)	3:36.20
4	Asbel Kiprop	Kenya (KEN)	3:36.47
5	Augustine Kiprono Choge	Kenya (KEN)	3:36.53
6	Mohamed Moustaoui	Morocco (MAR)	3:36.57
7	Mehdi Baala	France (FRA)	3:36.99
8	Lopez Lomong	United States (USA)	3:37.62
9	Belal Mansoor Ali	Bahrain (BHR)	3:37.72
10	Amine Laâlou	Morocco (MAR)	3:37.83
11	Abdalaati Iguider	Morocco (MAR)	3:38.35
12	Leonel Manzano	United States (USA)	3:40.05