World Athletics Championships 1991/400 m for women

3rd World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	36 athletes from 27 countries
venue	Tokyo
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 24th (preliminary) August 25th (quarter-finals) August 26th (semi-finals) August 27th (final)
Medalists Marie-José Pérec ( FRA )   Grit Breuer ( GER )   Sandra Myers ( ESP )

The Olympic Stadium in Tokyo in 2008

The women's 400-meter run at the 1991 World Athletics Championships was held from August 24 to 27, 1991 in the Olympic Stadium in the Japanese capital, Tokyo .

World champion was the French Championship -Third the previous year's Marie-José Pérec . She won ahead of the reigning European champion Grit Breuer from Germany , who won bronze with both seasons of her country on the final day. She started for the GDR up to and including 1990 and won Olympic gold in 1988 with the 4 x 400 meter relay . At the European Championships last year, she also received gold in the relay in addition to her individual victory. The third place went to the Spaniard Sandra Myers .

Existing records

World record	47.60 s	Marita Koch	Canberra , Australia	October 6, 1985
World championship record	47.99 s	Jarmila Kratochvílová	1983 World Cup in Helsinki , Finland	August 10, 1983

The World Cup record was not set and not improved at these World Cups.

Preliminary round

August 5, 1991, 5:35 p.m.

The preliminary round was carried out in five runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - as well as the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the quarter-finals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Marie-José Pérec	France	51.00 s
2	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	51.36 s
3	Linda Keough	Great Britain	51.51 s
4th	Sølvi Olsen	Norway	52.84 s
5	Cheryl Allen	Canada	53.17 s
6th	Huang Yanhong	People's Republic of China	54.51 s
7th	Lasnet Nkouka	Republic of the Congo	57.85 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Sandra Myers	Spain	52.70 s
2	Fatima Yusuf	Nigeria	52.81 s
3	Nancy McLeón	Cuba	52.87 s
4th	Norfalia Carabali	Colombia	53.31 s
5	Aissatou Tandian	Senegal	53.65 s
6th	Vaciseva Tavaga	Fiji	58.82 s
7th	Juliana Nzang Obieng	Equatorial Guinea	1: 04.13 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Jearl Miles	United States	51.88 s
2	Lorraine Hanson	Great Britain	52.08 s
3	Ximena Restrepo	Colombia	52.41 s
4th	Karin Janke	Germany	53.73 s
5	Reawadee Srithoa	Thailand	54.91 s
6th	Zeinabou Jean-Wali	Niger	1: 05.03 min
DSQ	Sharmaine Williams	Turks and Caicos Islands
DNS	Suzie Tanefo	Cameroon

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Diane Dixon	United States	52.43 s
2	Grit Breuer	Germany	52.56 s
3	Aelita Yurchenko	Soviet Union	52.65 s
4th	Renée Poetschka	Australia	52.65 s
5	Julia Merino	Spain	53.04 s
6th	Orit Kolodni	Israel	54.26 s
7th	Claudia Acerenza	Uruguay	55.82 s
8th	Graciela from Schmeling	Paraguay	57.37 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Charity Opara	Nigeria	51.06 s
2	Lyudmyla Jyhalova	Soviet Union	51.45 s
3	Lillie Leatherwood	United States	53.04 s
4th	Judit Forgács	Hungary	53.24 s
5	Martha Grossenbacher	Switzerland	53.77 s
6th	Shermaine Ross	Grenada	55.90 s
7th	Mary Estelle Kapalu	Vanuatu	56.47 s

Quarter finals

August 25, 1991, 6:20 p.m.

From each of the four quarter-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - as well as the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semi-finals.

Quarter-finals 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jearl Miles	United States	51.88
2	Sandra Myers	Spain	52.01
3	Grit Breuer	Germany	52.16
4th	Fatima Yusuf	Nigeria	52.46
5	Sølvi Olsen	Norway	52.95
6th	Aissatou Tandian	Senegal	53.06
7th	Cheryl Allen	Canada	53.21
DNF	Aelita Yurchenko	Soviet Union

Quarter-finals 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Lyudmyla Jyhalova	Soviet Union	50.76
2	Diane Dixon	United States	50.84
3	Linda Keough	Great Britain	51.13
4th	Renée Poetschka	Australia	51.65
5	Julia Merino	Spain	51.82
6th	Norfalia Carabali	Colombia	52.38
7th	Judit Forgács	Hungary	53.79
DSQ	Charity Opara	Nigeria

Quarter-finals 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Marie-José Pérec	France	50.61
2	Ximena Restrepo	Colombia	50.66
3	Lillie Leatherwood	United States	50.75
4th	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	50.79
5	Lorraine Hanson	Great Britain	51.02
6th	Karin Janke	Germany	53.08
7th	Nancy McLeón	Cuba	53.72
DNS	Martha Grossenbacher	Switzerland

Semifinals

August 26, 1991, 5:55 pm

From the two semi-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Semi-final run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Marie-José Pérec	France	49.94
2	Grit Breuer	Germany	50.14
3	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	50.26
4th	Diane Dixon	United States	50.75
5	Lorraine Hanson	Great Britain	50.93
6th	Norfalia Carabali	Colombia	52.40
7th	Renée Poetschka	Australia	52.76
8th	Julia Merino	Spain	53.41

Sølvi Olsen did not reach the finals as eighth of her semi-finals

Semi-final run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sandra Myers	Spain	50.64
2	Lillie Leatherwood	United States	50.68
3	Jearl Miles	United States	50.79
4th	Ximena Restrepo	Colombia	50.82
5	Lyudmyla Jyhalova	Soviet Union	50.85
6th	Fatima Yusuf	Nigeria	50.91
7th	Linda Keough	Great Britain	50.98
8th	Sølvi Olsen	Norway	53.63

• 

  After finishing third at the European Championships last year , Marie-José Pérec has now become world champion

• 

  The reigning European champion
  Grit Breuer (shown here as the winner of the GDR athletics championships in 1989 ) became vice world champion

• 

  Jearl Miles came in fifth here - she was the upcoming world champion and as Jearl Miles-Clark had many more successes ahead of her

final

August 27, 1991, 7:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Marie-José Pérec	France	49.13
2	Grit Breuer	Germany	49.42
3	Sandra Myers	Spain	49.78
4th	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	49.82
5	Jearl Miles	United States	50.50
6th	Ximena Restrepo	Colombia	50.79
7th	Lillie Leatherwood	United States	51.53
8th	Diane Dixon	United States	51.73

Video

• Women's 400m, World Championships Tokyo 1991 from youtube.com, accessed April 29, 2020

Web links

• World Championships in Athletics, 3rd IAAF World Championships in Athletics , accessed April 29, 2020
• Women 400m Athletics III World Championship 1991 Tokyo (JPN) on todor66.com, accessed April 29, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 400 m, Tokyo 1991, p. 262 (PDF 10.3 MB), English, accessed on April 29, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on April 29, 2020