1500 metres at the World Athletics Championships

• All information from World Athletics.^[3]

More information Distinction, Male ...

Distinction	Male			Female
	Athlete	Age	Date	Athlete	Age	Date
Youngest champion	Noureddine Morceli (ALG)	21 years, 185 days	1 Sep 1991	Liu Dong (CHN)	19 years, 241 days	22 Aug 1993
Youngest medalist	Noah Ngeny (KEN)	20 years, 295 days	24 Aug 1999	Anita Weyermann (SUI)	19 years, 240 days	5 Aug 1997
Youngest finalist	Asbel Kiprop (KEN)	18 years, 60 days	29 Aug 2007	Mary Cain (USA)	18 years, 224 days	15 Aug 2013
Youngest participant	Yahye Abdi Gurre (SOM)	16 years, 234 days[nb1]	23 Aug 2003	Lamberte Nyabamikazi (BDI)	14 years, 217 days	4 Aug 2001
Oldest champion	Bernard Lagat (USA)	32 years, 260 days	4 Sep 2007	Svetlana Masterkova (RUS)	31 years, 224 days	29 Aug 1999
Oldest medalist	Bernard Lagat (USA)	34 years, 250 days	19 Aug 2009	Violeta Szekely (ROU)	36 years, 134 days	7 Aug 2001
Oldest finalist	Bernard Lagat (USA)	34 years, 250 days	19 Aug 2009	Tatyana Tomashova (RUS)	40 years, 55 days	25 Aug 2015
Oldest participant	Joseph Chesire (KEN)	35 years, 281 days	20 Aug 1993	Tatyana Tomashova (RUS)	40 years, 55 days	25 Aug 2015

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^nb The exact date of birth of the youngest male participant, Yahye Abdi Gurre, is unknown but he remains the youngest given his known year of birth and calculating from 1 January of that year.^[4]

The 1500 m was the event that first saw the disqualification of a World Championships medallist on the grounds of doping. The 1987 women's bronze medallist Sandra Gasser gave a positive test for anabolic steroids at the competition and received a two-year ban from the sport later that month.^[5] Twelve years passed without incident in the event, until the disqualification of the first male 1500 m athlete in 1999: Ibrahim Mohamed Aden was disqualified and given a public warning for ephedrine usage due to failing his post-race test after the semi-finals.^[6]

The 2003 men's finalist Fouad Chouki was banned for two-years after a positive test for EPO. Chouki lost an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in which he claimed that an unknown person had injected him with EPO in the aftermath of the race.^[7] Regina Jacobs (a two-time silver medallist) had her 2003 semi-final performance annulled retrospectively following the BALCO scandal, as later analysis of her sample at the 2003 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships showed usage of the novel steroid THG.^[8][9]

The women's World Championships 1500 m was affected by doping for three straight editions starting from 2007. Russia's Yelena Soboleva became the second athlete to be stripped of a 1500 m medal after she was banned for her involvement in a doping test manipulation scheme, alongside 2007 finalist Yuliya Fomenko and two-time world champion Tatyana Tomashova (who did not compete in 2007 and whose gold medals from 2003 and 2005 still stand).^[10] In 2009 Mariem Alaoui Selsouli withdrew from the final after a sample given earlier that year tested positive for EPO while heats runner Alemitu Bekele Degfa was banned due to biological passport abnormalities.^[11][12] Ukrainian duo Anzhelika Shevchenko and Nataliya Tobias had their 2011 results annulled while Olesya Syreva became the third Russian 1500 m to be disqualified for doping.^[9]

Bernard Lagat, the men's gold medallist in 2007, had a positive "A" sample test for EPO prior to the 2003 World Championships which was disregarded after the "B" sample (taken at the same time) returned a negative result. He was temporarily banned in the interim period of testing and missed the world championships as a result, having been runner-up two years earlier. Lagat and medical advisor Hans Heid were critical of the testing procedure for EPO and advocated the dropping of the technique until more reliable methods were found.^[13]

Outside of the competition, the 2005 men's champion Rashid Ramzi was banned for doping after winning at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.^[14] Inaugural women's champion Mary Decker was banned for doping later in her career,^[15] as were 2003 and 2005 runners-up Süreyya Ayhan and Olga Yegorova.^[16][10]