I should correct myself here. Morceli was more like 1:33 for the last 700m. The leader, McMullen was 1:59.69 at 800m and Morceli was maybe a half second back. Morceli really starts to go at about 1080m. He hits the bell at 2:42.45 on the clock.
So, he had picked up the pace already from 800 to 1100, running that in about 42 low (maybe 56.5 pace). He's at 2:55.37 at 1100m with a 55.68 leader to leader 400m. It looks like he is at about 3:07.6 at 1300m.
He finishes at 3:33.73, closing in 26.1/38.36/51.28.
For the slowdown, he turns around at the first white banner, then slows down at the blue banner at 3:31.0, taking 2.73 seconds to the finish line. Well behind him, Guerrouj hits the blue banner at 3:32.8 and finishes in 3:35.2, taking 2.4 seconds to the line. So, right there is about .3 slowdown. But Morceli was also going considerably faster than Guerrouj, so make it about a half second slowdown. That would make the close into at least 50.78 if he had someone close.
Now you can compare with Centro's Olympic gold race.
In a 3:50 1500m, with an absolutely pedestrian start for these guys in 66.8/69.77 and starting to go only at about 870m, Centro ran 55.41 to 1100 at 3:12.00 and closed the last lap in 50.62/38.0 (bell at 2:59.2, so 50.8 but official time is 50.6), with a final 700m in 1:33.4, while in a 3:33 race Morceli ran 55 to 1100 and closed the last lap in 51.3 (38/25.7 contested) with a 50.8 ready and waiting.
Makhloufi has a hitch in his stride as he ties up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grf_62s_95w
