Peter Snell of New Zealand won the Olympic 1500-meter run in 3:38.1 this morning. America's Dyrol Burleson finished far back.

Germany's Willie Holdorf pulled a major upset in the Olympics yesterday, beating Nationalist China's C.K. Yang to win the decathlon gold medal.

Yang, silver medalist behind Rafer Johnson in 1960, was considered a certain winner in the two-day event. But Holdorf took the lead in the first event, and held on through both days of competition.

Rein Aum Second

He finished up by running the 1500 meters, last of the ten events, in 4:34.3. That gave Holdorf 7887 points and left Russia's fast-closing Rein Aum in second with 7842. Hans-Joachim Walde of Germany won the bronze medal with 7809 points and Paul Herman of the U.S. was fourth with 7787.

Yang, who failed to equal his best performances in any of the 10 events, was fifth with 7650. Russ Hodge and Dick Emberger, the other two Americans, finished ninth and tenth.

Lones Wigger won the only American medal of the day, a gold in the small-bore rifle event, with a world record of 1164 for 120 shots.

Russia's Tamara Press won her second gold medal, putting the shot 59 ft., 6 1/4 in. Britain's Ann Packer won the women's 800-meter run in a world record 2:01.1.

Competition Ends Today

Track and field competition closes today, with Americans entered in all six finals. John Thomas led three Americans over the qualifying height of 6 ft., 9 in. in the high jump. Russia's world-record holder Valery Brumel almost failed to qualify. Brumel didn't clear 6 ft., 8 in. until his third and last try.

Also on the schedule were the 1500 meters (with America's Dyrol Burleson and New Zealand's Peter Snell the top entrants); the marathon (with Buddy Edelen and 10,000 meter winner Billy Mills entered for the U.S.); and three relay events (with the U.S. favored in all three).

In boxing, American featherweight Charlie Brown and lightweight Ron Harris joined two teammates in the semi-finals. One American yacht led in its event with one race remaining, one was second, and three others were third.