1971 European Athletics Championships
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
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The men's 1500 metres at the 1971 European Athletics Championships was held in Helsinki, Finland, at Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 13 and 15 August 1971.^[1]

Gold	Francesco Arese  Italy
Silver	Henryk Szordykowski  Poland
Bronze	Brendan Foster  Great Britain

15 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Francesco Arese	Italy	3:38.43	CR
	Henryk Szordykowski	Poland	3:38.73
	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	3:39.24
4	John Kirkbride	Great Britain	3:39.48
5	Jacques Boxberger	France	3:39.57
6	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	3:40.68
7	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	West Germany	3:40.78
8	Haico Scharn	Netherlands	3:40.92
9	Pekka Vasala	Finland	3:41.49
10	Volodymyr Panteley	Soviet Union	3:42.90
11	Viktor Semyashkin	Soviet Union	3:44.18
12	Gerd Larsen	Denmark	3:45.68

13 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Volodymyr Panteley	Soviet Union	3:42.2	Q
2	Henryk Szordykowski	Poland	3:42.3	Q
3	Jean-Pierre Dufresne	France	3:42.5	Q
4	Brendan Foster	Great Britain	3:42.8	Q
5	Atanas Atanasov	Bulgaria	3:43.2
6	Antonio Burgos	Spain	3:43.3
7	Knut Kvalheim	Norway	3:43.7
8	Renzo Finelli	Italy	3:43.9
9	Gilbert Van Manshoven	Belgium	3:45.0
10	Tom Birger Hansen	Denmark	3:46.3
11	Fernando Mamede	Portugal	3:49.3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jacques Boxberger	France	3:43.6	Q
2	Pekka Vasala	Finland	3:43.6	Q
3	Haico Scharn	Netherlands	3:43.7	Q
4	Viktor Semyashkin	Soviet Union	3:43.7	Q
5	André De Hertoghe	Belgium	3:43.7
6	Frank Murphy	Ireland	3:44.0
7	Peter Stewart	Great Britain	3:45.0
8	Slavko Koprivica	Yugoslavia	3:48.9
9	Jerzy Maluśki	Poland	3:53.7
10	Aurelio Falero	Gibraltar	4:01.3	NR
11	Gianni Del Buono	Italy	4:01.8

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Paul-Heinz Wellmann	West Germany	3:51.8	Q
2	Francesco Arese	Italy	3:52.1	Q
3	John Kirkbride	Great Britain	3:52.6	Q
4	Gerd Larsen	Denmark	3:52.7	Q
5	Jan Prasek	Poland	3:52.8
6	Robert Leborgne	France	3:53.3
7	Bram Wassenaar	Netherlands	3:54.2
8	Pavel Pěnkava	Czechoslovakia	3:55.2
9	Mikhail Zhelobovskiy	Soviet Union	3:55.6
10	Mehmet Tümkan	Turkey	3:57.4

According to an unofficial count, 32 athletes from 19 countries participated in the event.