European Athletics Championships 2002/1500 m for women

18th European Athletics Championships
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	32 athletes from 22 countries
venue	Munich
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 9th (preliminary) August 11th (final)
Medalists Süreyya Ayhan ( TUR )   Gabriela Szabo ( ROM )   Tatiana Tomaschowa ( RUS )

Munich Olympic Stadium

The women's 1,500 meter run at the 2002 European Athletics Championships was held on August 9th and 11th, 2002 in Munich's Olympic Stadium.

European champion was Süreyya Ayhan from Turkey . She won ahead of the reigning world champion and Olympic third party from 2000 Gabriela Szabo from Romania, who was even more successful on the 5000 meter course with two World Cup titles and the 2000 Olympic victory . Bronze went to Tatiana Tomaschowa from Russia .

Existing records

World record	3: 50.46 min	Qu Yunxia	Beijing , People's Republic of China	September 11, 1993
European record	3: 52.47 min	Tatiana Kasankina	Zurich , Switzerland	August 13, 1980
EM record	3: 57.80 min	Olga Dwirna	EM Athens , Greece	September 11, 1982

The EM record, which has existed since 1982 , was not set and not improved at these European championships. However, European champion Süreyya Ayhan and second placed Gabriela Szabo were only about one second above the championship record in the final on August 11th.   

Preliminary round

August 9, 2002

The preliminary round was carried out in three runs. The first three athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - as well as the three fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final. As the third heat was the one with the closest gaps in the front, all participants who qualified for the final came out of this race alone.

Forward 1

• 

  Kelly Holmes, bronze medalist in the 800 meters , missed the 1500 meter final by one place

• 

  Trine Pilskog was eliminated as eighth of her race in the preliminaries

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Judit Varga	Hungary	4: 07.71
2	Daniela Jordanova	Bulgaria	4: 07.79
3	Iris María Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4: 07.86
4th	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 08.11
5	Elena Iagar	Romania	4: 09.37
6th	Ekaterina Pushanova	Russia	4: 11.49
7th	María Tsírba	Greece	4: 12.75
8th	Trine Pilskog	Norway	4: 13.84
9	Rasa Drazdauskaitė	Lithuania	4: 16.80
10	Anjolie Wisse	Netherlands	4: 17.89

Forward 2

• 

  Rasa Drazdauskaitė - later on as a marathon runner - did not survive the preliminary round in ninth place in the first heat

• 

  Her ninth place in the second heat was too little for Helena Javornik to be in the final

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Süreyya Ayhan	Turkey	4: 04.42
2	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	4: 08.89
3	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4: 08.91
4th	Kathleen Friedrich	Germany	4: 08.98
5	Helen Pattinson	Great Britain	4: 09.66
6th	Lena Nilsson	Sweden	4: 09.89
7th	Veerle Dejaeghere	Belgium	4: 10.88
8th	Geraldine Hendricken	Ireland	4: 18.13
9	Helena Javornik	Slovenia	4: 18.46
10	Lívia Tóth	Hungary	4: 19.23
11	Sara Palmas	Italy	4: 28.31

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Tatiana Tomaschowa	Russia	4: 05.04
2	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 05.14
3	Núria Fernández	Spain	4: 05.42
4th	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 05.70
5	Alessja Turawa	Belarus	4: 05.75
6th	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4: 05.78
7th	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4: 10.68
8th	Maria Lynch	Ireland	4: 14.41
9	Heidi Jensen	Denmark	4: 16.01
10	Kristin Roset	Norway	4: 17.40
11	Sonja Roman	Slovenia	4: 19.87

final

Vice European champion Gabriela Szabo, reigning world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in 2000 - she was even more successful on the 5000 meter course with two world championship titles and the 2000 Olympic victory

August 11, 2002

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Süreyya Ayhan	Turkey	3: 58.79
2	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	3: 58.81
3	Tatiana Tomaschowa	Russia	4: 01.28
4th	Judit Varga	Hungary	4: 02.37
5	Daniela Jordanova	Bulgaria	4: 03.03
6th	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4: 06.15
7th	Alessja Turawa	Belarus	4: 06.64
8th	Núria Fernández	Spain	4: 07.11
9	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4: 10.56
10	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	4: 11.70
11	Iris María Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4: 13.02
12	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 17.01

• 

  With bronze, Tatiana Tomaschowa won her first medal at a major championship - later she won silver and bronze at the Olympic Games, as well as two World Cup titles and a European Championship victory in  2006

• 

  Daniela Jordanowa (right) took fifth place

• 

  Natalia Rodríguez came in sixth place

• 

  Núria Fernández reached eighth place

• 

  The ninth placed Lidia Chojecka

• 

  Iryna Lishchynska (here in the leading position) was tenth in this final

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Munich 2002 at european-athletics.org, accessed on November 2, 2019
• Women 1500m European Championship 2002 Munich on todor66.com, accessed on November 2, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 2002 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on November 2, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women 1500m European Championship 2002 Munich, p. 486 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on November 2, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 2002, 1500 m women on sportschau.de, accessed on November 2, 2019
• 18th European Athletics Championships 2002 in Munich, Germany from ifosta.de, accessed on November 2, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500m women , accessed November 2, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 1500 m Women , Spanish / English, p. 53 (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on November 2, 2019