Athletics at the 2002 Commonwealth Games – Men's 800 metres

Men's 800 metres
at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Men's 800 metres ; at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Venue	City of Manchester Stadium
Dates	26 July 2002 (heats); 27 July 2002 (semi finals); 28 July 2002 (final);
Competitors	27 from 21 nations
Winning time	1:46.32
Medalists
	← 1998 2006 →

Official Video

The men's 800 metres event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games took place between 27 and 29 July at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi won the gold medal with a time of 1:46.32 giving South Africa its first victory in the event. Kenyan Joseph Mutua placed second, taking the silver medal in 1:46.57. He finished ahead of Kris McCarthy of Australia who won the bronze.^[1]^[2]

This was the ninth running of the 800 metres event at the Commonwealth Games after converting to metric at the 1970 Edinburgh Games. An 880 yards event was contested between 1930 and 1966. 27 competitors from 21 nations entered the event.^[3] The champion from Kuala Lumpur, Japheth Kimutai was unable to defend his title finishing fifth in the final.^[1] Whilst the silver medallist in both 1994 and 1998, South African Hezekiél Sepeng, failed to arrive in Manchester for the Games after sustaining a hamstring injury.^[4]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing records were as follows:

Records before the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Record	Time (s)	Athlete (nation)	Meet	Location	Date	Ref
World record	1:41.11	Wilson Kipketer (DEN)	Weltklasse in Köln	Cologne, Germany	24 August 1997	^[3]
Commonwealth record	1:41.73	Sebastian Coe (GBR)		Florence, Italy	10 June 1981	^[5]
Games record	1:43.22	Steve Cram (ENG)	Commonwealth Games	Edinburgh, Scotland	31 July 1986	^[3]

Results

Heats

The heats were held on 27 July, starting at 11:10 in the morning.^[3]

Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the best 4 of remaining athletes (q) advance to the semi finals.

Heat 1

Results of heat 1
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Otukile Lekote	Botswana	1:47.68	Q
2	Paskar Owor	Uganda	1:47.87	Q, SB
3	Nathan Brannen	Canada	1:48.04	Q
4	Prince Mumba	Zambia	1:48.40	q, PB
5	Sherridan Kirk	Trinidad and Tobago	1:48.51	q
6	Nickie Peters	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1:52.73

Heat 2

Results of heat 2
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Joseph Mutua	Kenya	1:48.53	Q
2	Kris McCarthy	Australia	1:48.85	Q
3	Neil Speaight	England	1:49.67	Q
4	Constantinos Hadjimarkou	Cyprus	1:51.26
5	Clive Baron	Dominica	1:59.48
	Ebrima Ceesay	The Gambia	DQ
	Clement Abai	Papua New Guinea	DNS

Heat 3

Results of heat 3
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Japheth Kimutai	Kenya	1:49.62	Q
2	Zach Whitmarsh	Canada	1:49.92	Q
3	Glody Dube	Botswana	1:50.16	Q
4	Curtis Robb	England	1:50.34
5	Amilcar Leal	Mozambique	1:50.85
6	Marvin Watts	Jamaica	1:51.39
7	Daryl Vassallo	Gibraltar	1:57.66

Heat 4

Results of heat 4
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mbulaeni Mulaudzi	South Africa	1:49.08	Q
2	James McIlroy	Northern Ireland	1:49.21	Q
3	Joel Kidger	England	1:49.47	Q
4	Matthew Shone	Wales	1:49.67	q
5	Isireli Naikelekelevesi	Fiji	1:50.01	q
6	Sylvester Chishiba	Zambia	1:50.86	PB
7	Dauda Manasary	Sierra Leone	2:04.59

Semi finals

The semi finals were held on 28 July, starting at 18:45 in the evening.^[6]

Qualification: First 3 of each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified for the final.

Semi final 1

Results of semi final 1
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Joseph Mutua	Kenya	1:46.43	Q
2	Otukile Lekote	Botswana	1:46.65	Q
3	James McIlroy	Northern Ireland	1:46.93	Q,
4	Paskar Owor	Uganda	1:47.14	q, SB
5	Nathan Brannen	Canada	1:47.65
6	Joel Kidger	England	1:48.12	PB
7	Matthew Shone	Wales	1:49.08
8	Isireli Naikelekelevesi	Fiji	1:50.00

Semi final 2

Results of semi final 2
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mbulaeni Mulaudzi	South Africa	1:46.72	Q
2	Japheth Kimutai	Kenya	1:46.81	Q
3	Kris McCarthy	Australia	1:47.06	Q
4	Glody Dube	Botswana	1:47.19	q
5	Neil Speaight	England	1:47.22
6	Sherridan Kirk	Trinidad and Tobago	1:47.98
7	Prince Mumba	Zambia	1:48.51
8	Zach Whitmarsh	Canada	1:49.61

Final

The final was held at 20:24 on 29 July.^[7]

Results of the final
Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
	Mbulaeni Mulaudzi	South Africa	1:46.32
	Joseph Mutua	Kenya	1:46.57
	Kris McCarthy	Australia	1:46.79
4	Otukile Lekote	Botswana	1:47.04
5	Japheth Kimutai	Kenya	1:47.46
6	James McIlroy	Northern Ireland	1:47.77
7	Paskar Owor	Uganda	1:48.96
8	Glody Dube	Botswana	2:17.40

References

^ ^a ^b "Gold for Mulaudzi". BBC Sport. 29 July 2002. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ Brown, Matthew (29 July 2002). "Ferguson's fine double – Commonwealth Games Day 4". IAAF. Archived from the original on 14 January 2025. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Athletics - Men's 800m Heat Status". Manchester 2002. 27 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ "Sepeng goes missing". News24. 24 July 2002. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ Larsson, Peter (25 April 2006). "All-time men's best 800m". alltime-athletics.com. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ "Athletics - Men's 800m Semi Final Status". Manchester 2002. 28 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
^ "Athletics - Men's 800m Final Status". Manchester 2002. 29 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[BBC-1] "Gold for Mulaudzi". BBC Sport. 29 July 2002. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[2] Brown, Matthew (29 July 2002). "Ferguson's fine double – Commonwealth Games Day 4". IAAF. Archived from the original on 14 January 2025. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[Heats-3] "Athletics - Men's 800m Heat Status". Manchester 2002. 27 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[4] "Sepeng goes missing". News24. 24 July 2002. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[5] Larsson, Peter (25 April 2006). "All-time men's best 800m". alltime-athletics.com. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[6] "Athletics - Men's 800m Semi Final Status". Manchester 2002. 28 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

[7] "Athletics - Men's 800m Final Status". Manchester 2002. 29 July 2002. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2025.

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Athletics at the 2002 Commonwealth Games

Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
Para-athletics
100 m blind	men
800 m wheelchair		women
v t e

v t e Commonwealth Games champions in men's 800 metres
880 yards (1930–1966)	1930: Tommy Hampson (ENG) 1934: Phil Edwards (BGU) 1938: Pat Boot (NZL) 1950: John Parlett (ENG) 1954: Derek Johnson (ENG) 1958: Herb Elliott (AUS) 1962: Peter Snell (NZL) 1966: Noel Clough (AUS)
800 metres (1970–present)	1970: Robert Ouko (KEN) 1974: John Kipkurgat (KEN) 1978: Mike Boit (KEN) 1982: Peter Bourke (AUS) 1986: Steve Cram (ENG) 1990: Sammy Tirop (KEN) 1994: Patrick Konchellah (KEN) 1998: Japheth Kimutai (KEN) 2002: Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (RSA) 2006: Alex Kipchirchir (KEN) 2010: Boaz Kiplagat Lalang (KEN) 2014: Nijel Amos (BOT) 2018: Wyclife Kinyamal (KEN) 2022: Wyclife Kinyamal (KEN)