The men's 800 metres at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics was held on August 11, 12 and 14 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
Belal Mansoor Ali took the field through the first 400 in 52.48. Kicker Yuriy Borzakovskiy went to the back of the pack, but uncharacteristically moved to the front near the end of the first lap. But the entire field was jostling for position, with Wilfred Bungei elbowing his way to the lead and the entire field scrambling for position, and suddenly Borzakovskiy found himself in seventh place again after expending the effort to get a better position. Djabir Saïd-Guerni led the chase through the final turn, with William Yiampoy on his heels. Through the turn, Rashid Ramzi went around the outside, passing Saïd-Guerni as they hit the home stretch. Saïd-Guerni faded allowing Yiampoy to pass him on the inside. Further back Borzakovskiy was dealing with traffic of Mehdi Baala and Ali still in sixth place coming off the final turn. Ramzi easily sprinted past Bungei and on to victory. Bungei was struggling to hold on to second with Yiampoy sneaking through, again on the inside. Borzakovskiy's late rush caught everybody else, passing Yiampoy just before the line but was too late to catch Ramzi. Three years later Ramzi was disqualified from the Olympics on a doping violation, but to date has been allowed to keep his previous medals.
| Gold |  Rashid RamziBahrain (BHR) | |
| Silver |  Yuriy BorzakovskiyRussia (RUS) | |
| Bronze |  William YiampoyKenya (KEN) |
All times shown are in seconds.
August 11, 2005
Rashid Ramzi 1:46.17 Q
James McIlroy 1:46.44 Q
Berhanu Alemu 1:47.37 q (SB)
Osmar Barbosa dos Santos 1:47.74
Lee Jae-hoon 1:47.90 (SB)
Tom Omey 1:49.62
Mehdi Baala 1:46.57 Q Wilfred Bungei 1:46.71 Q
Khadevis Robinson 1:46.74 Q Dmitriy Bogdanov 1:46.88 q
Paweł Czapiewski 1:46.93 q
Yeimer López 1:52.24 Yuriy Borzakovskiy 1:50.14 Q William Yiampoy 1:50.14 Q
Jason Stewart 1:50.35 Fabiano Peçanha 1:50.89
Paskar Owor 1:51.72 (SB) Yusuf Saad Kamel 1:47.65 Q David Krummenacker 1:47.82 Q
Mouhssin Chehibi 1:48.17 Q Alfred Kirwa Yego 1:48.72
Fadrique Iglesias 1:49.57
Manuel Olmedo DNF Antonio Manuel Reina 1:47.14 Q
Gary Reed 1:47.23 Q Amine Laalou 1:47.62 Q
Maurizio Bobbato 1:48.36
Juha Kukkamo 1:48.69 Belal Mansoor Ali 1:47.16 Q Eugenio Barrios 1:47.53 q Achraf Tadili 1:48.42
Rizak Dirshe 1:48.43 Kevin Hicks 1:50.00August 12, 2005
Yuriy Borzakovskiy 1:44.26 Q Rashid Ramzi 1:44.30 Q (PB) William Yiampoy 1:44.51 q (SB) Amine Laalou 1:45.05 Eugenio Barrios 1:48.76 Khadevis Robinson 1:49.13 Belal Mansoor Ali 1:45.45 Q Mehdi Baala 1:45.50 Q Paweł Czapiewski 1:46.33 Dmitriy Bogdanov 1:46.83 Antonio Manuel Reina 1:46.89 Berhanu Alemu 1:47.66 Gary Reed 1:44.33 Q (NR) Wilfred Bungei 1:44.41 Q Yusuf Saad Kamel 1:44.90 Mouhssin Chehibi 1:45.82 James McIlroy 1:45.91 (SB) David Krummenacker 1:46.76August 14, 2005
Rashid Ramzi 1:44.24 (PB) Yuriy Borzakovskiy 1:44.51 William Yiampoy 1:44.55 Wilfred Bungei 1:44.98 Mehdi Baala 1:45.32 Belal Mansoor Ali 1:45.55 Gary Reed 1:46.20