1500m Champions and records

Hicham El Guerrrouj of Morocco

The men’s table of the 10 fastest times ever is remarkable in several ways, not least the fact that not one single runner from the USA is featured!

With the exceptions of Fermin Cacho (Spain), Mehdi Baala (France, of North African origin) and Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain), all the other times have been run by African athletes, including Bernard Lagat who now runs for the USA, but was still flying the Kenyan flag when he run his record time in 2001. The story is very different with the ladies,and it’s a contentious one.

5 of the top ten times were recorded on October 18th, 1997, at the Chinese national championships in Shanghai, amid strong rumours of cheating.

The current world record is held by Yunxia Qu of (guess what?) China, and so is the 5th fastest time ever. They have both been run in 1993 in Beijing.

The lone figure of Soviet Union runner Tatiana Kazankina is the first to appear in the ranking behind the Chinese ladies, and her time hails from as far back as 1980.
 
Men

Updated 16 June 2009.

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
 
Women
Top Ten Fastest Athletes

Updated 16 June 2009.

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
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500m