World Athletics Championships 1991/400 m hurdles for women

3rd World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	34 athletes from 24 countries
venue	Tokyo
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 26th (preliminary) August 27th (semi-finals) August 29th (final)
Medalists Tazzjana Ljadouskaja ( URS )   Sally Gunnell ( GBR )   Janeene Vickers ( USA )

The Olympic Stadium in Tokyo in 2008

The women's 400-meter hurdles at the 1991 World Athletics Championships was held from August 26th to 29th, 1991 in the Olympic Stadium in the Japanese capital, Tokyo .

World champion was the Soviet Olympic runner-up from 1988 Tazzjana Ljadouskaja , who had won Olympic gold in the 4 x 400 meter relay in 1988 and here with her relay won her second World Cup title on the final day . Second place went to just five hundredths of a second behind the Briton Sally Gunnell . Bronze went to the American Janeene Vickers .

Records

Existing records

World record	52.94 s	Marina Ivanovna Stepanova	Tashkent , Soviet Union (now Uzbekistan )	17th September 1986
World Cup record	53.62 s	Sabine Busch	World Cup 1987 in Rome , Italy	3rd September 1987

Record improvement

The Soviet world champion Tazzjana Ljadouskaja improved the world championship record in the final on August 29 by 51 hundredths of a second to 53.11 s.

In addition, the British Vice World Champion Sally Gunnell set a new national record in the final with 53.16 seconds.

Preliminary round

August 26, 1991, 3:30 p.m.

The preliminary round was carried out in five runs. The first two athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - and the six fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semi-finals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Janeene Vickers	United States	54.85 s
2	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	54.94 s
3	Gowry Retchakan	Great Britain	54.95 s
4th	Frida Johansson	Sweden	55.60 s
5	Ann Maenhout	Belgium	58.39 s
6th	Marie Womplou	Ivory Coast	58.80 s
7th	Elma Muros	Philippines	59.90 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Anita Protti	Switzerland	54.53 s
2	Margarita Ponomaryova	Soviet Union	55.87 s
3	Gudrun Abbot	Germany	56.16 s
4th	Lency's Montelier	Cuba	57.72 s
5	Huang Yanhong	People's Republic of China	58.05 s
6th	Omolade Akinremi	Nigeria	58.25 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	54.70 s
2	Anna Tschuprina	Soviet Union	56.15 s
3	Sabine Busch	Germany	56.37 s
4th	Donalda Duprey	Canada	56.38 s
5	Lyn Massey	New Zealand	57.55 s
6th	Junko Hasegawa	Japan	59.71 s
7th	Gretha Tromp	Netherlands	1: 00.45 min

Forward 4

As the fifth of their prelims, Nicoleta Căruţaşu did not reach the semi-finals

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Irmgard Trojer	Italy	55.77 s
2	Kim Batten	United States	55.77 s
3	Monica Westén	Sweden	55.79 s
4th	Deon Hemmings	Jamaica	56.35 s
5	Nicoleta Căruţaşu	Romania	57.13 s
6th	Liliana Chalá	Ecuador	1: 00.49 min
7th	Mirenda Francourt	Seychelles	1: 05.92 min

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time
1	Sandra Farmer-Patrick	United States	55.81 s
2	Heike Meissner	Germany	56.00 s
3	Nezha Bidouane	Morocco	56.32 s
4th	Rosey Edeh	Canada	57.32 s
5	Jacqui Parker	Great Britain	57.81 s
6th	Reawadee Srithoa	Thailand	58.74 s
7th	Mari Bjone	Norway	59.00 s

Nezha Bidouane (Photo: 2015) , African champion from 1990 , failed here in the semi-finals - she still had two World Cup titles and an Olympic victory to go

The defending champion Sabine Busch, 1986 Vice European Champion, was eliminated in the semi-finals

Semifinals

August 27, 1991, 5:30 p.m.

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	Anita Protti	Switzerland	54.26
2	Sandra Farmer-Patrick	United States	54.44
3	Janeene Vickers	United States	54.63
4th	Heike Meissner	Germany	54.77
5	Gowry Retchakan	Great Britain	54.88
6th	Frida Johansson	Sweden	55.36
7th	Anna Tschuprina	Soviet Union	55.81
8th	Nezha Bidouane	Morocco	56.62

Semi-final run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	54.24
2	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	54.36
3	Kim Batten	United States	54.70
4th	Margarita Ponomaryova	Soviet Union	55.22
5	Monica Westén	Sweden	55.51
6th	Irmgard Trojer	Italy	55.66
7th	Sabine Busch	Germany	55.73
8th	Gudrun Abbot	Germany	56.17

final

Vice World Champion Sally Gunnell (here 1995) - one year later she became Olympic champion

August 29, 1991, 7:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	53.11 CR
2	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	53.16 NO
3	Janeene Vickers	United States	53.47
4th	Sandra Farmer-Patrick	United States	53.95
5	Kim Batten	United States	53.98
6th	Anita Protti	Switzerland	54.25
7th	Heike Meissner	Germany	54.26
8th	Margarita Ponomaryova	Soviet Union	54.27

Video

• Women's 400m Hurdles Final World Champs in Tokyo 1991 on youtube.com, accessed May 1, 2020

Web links

• World Championships in Athletics, 3rd IAAF World Championships in Athletics , accessed May 1, 2020
• Women 400m Hurdles Athletics III World Championship 1991 Tokyo (JPN) on todor66.com, accessed May 1, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 400m Hurdles, Tokyo 1991, p. 305f (PDF 10.3 MB), English, accessed on May 1, 2020

References and comments

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