World Athletics Championships 1997/400 m for women

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	38 athletes from 26 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 2nd (preliminary / quarter finals) August 3rd (semi-finals) August 4th (final)
Medalists Cathy Freeman ( AUS )   Sandie Richards ( JAM )   Jearl Miles Clark ( USA )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The women's 400-meter run at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held from August 2-4, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

The world champion was the Australian Olympic runner-up in 1996, Cathy Freeman , who had won bronze at the 1995 World Championships with her country's 4 x 400 meter relay . Silver went to the third place in the 1993 World Cup, Sandie Richards from Jamaica . The US American World Champion in 1993 and third in the 1995 World Cup, Jearl Miles Clark , who also won numerous medals with the United States' 4 x 400 meter relay - 1993/1995 World Championships: gold each, 1991 World Championships: bronze , Olympic gold in 1996 and Olympic silver in 1992 -, won the bronze medal.

The exit at the very front was extremely close. At the beginning of the home straight, Cathy Freeman, who had to run on the unfavorable inner lane due to her slow-speed appearance in the semifinals, was just behind the leading Nigerian Falilat Ogunkoya . Freeman took over the lead without any problems, but Sandie Richards, who was not far behind, came dangerously close. There were just two hundredths of a second between the winner Freeman and Vice World Champion Richards. Just another eleven hundredths of a second behind, Jearl Miles Clark followed in third.

Existing records

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

The existing world championship record was missed by 1.78 seconds at these world championships. Only the three medalists Cathy Freeman , Sandie Richards and Jearl Miles Clark stayed below the fifty second mark.

Two national records were set:

• 51.99 s - Damayanthi Darsha ( Sri Lanka ), 1st advance on August 2nd
• 55.54 s - Cathalina Staye ( St. Vincent and the Grenadines ), 2nd run on August 2nd

Preliminary round

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

August 2, 1997, 8:10 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Helena Fuchsová	Czech Republic	51.05
2	Tatyana Alexeyeva	Russia	51.61
3	Damayanthi darsha	Sri Lanka	51.99 NO
4th	Olabisi Afolabi	Nigeria	52.13
5	Tonique Williams	Bahamas	52.30
6th	LaDonna Antoine	Canada	52.44
7th	Maria Magnólia Souza Figueiredo	Brazil	53.95
8th	Charmaine Smit	Namibia	55.67

Forward 2

August 2, 1997, 8:18 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	51.57
2	Jearl Miles Clark	United States	51.77
3	Allison Curbishley	Great Britain	51.99
4th	Norfalia Carabali	Colombia	52.18
5	Hana Benešová	Czech Republic	52.74
6th	Mayra González	Mexico	53.63
7th	Kaltouma Nadjina	Chad	54.49
8th	Cathalina Staye	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	55.54 NO

Forward 3

August 2, 1997, 8:26 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Kim Graham	United States	51.92
2	Donna Fraser	Great Britain	52.21
3	Patrizia Spuri	Italy	52.54
4th	Tatiana Chebykina	Russia	52.57
5	Inez Turner	Jamaica	53.34
6th	Christína Panágou	Greece	54.23
7th	Grace Dinkins	Liberia	55.19
DNS	Charity Opara	Nigeria

Forward 4

August 2, 1997, 8:34 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Grit Breuer	Germany	51.43
2	Olga Kotlyarova	Russia	51.55
3	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	51.77
4th	Naděžda Koštovalová	Czech Republic	52.15
5	Adri de Jongh	South Africa	52.47
6th	Zoila Stewart	Costa Rica	54.03
7th	Dijana Kojic	Bosnia and Herzegovina	55.06
8th	Olga Conte	Argentina	55.82

Forward 5

August 2, 1997, 8:42 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Lorraine Fenton	Jamaica	51.45
2	Cathy Freeman	Australia	51.53
3	Maicel Malone	United States	51.57
4th	Pauline Davis	Bahamas	51.61
5	Anja Rücker	Germany	51.84
6th	Marina Filipovic	Yugoslavia	53.16
7th	Svetlana Bodritskaya	Kazakhstan	53.28

Quarter finals

From each of the three quarter-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semifinals.

Quarter-finals 1

August 2, 1997, 7:55 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	50.08
2	Helena Fuchsová	Czech Republic	50.36
3	Pauline Davis	Bahamas	50.53
4th	Olga Kotlyarova	Russia	50.63
5	Maicel Malone	United States	50.77
6th	Allison Curbishley	Great Britain	50.78
7th	Anja Rücker	Germany	51.36
DNF	Adri de Jongh	South Africa

Quarter-finals 2

August 2, 1997, 8:05 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	50.39
2	Grit Breuer	Germany	50.65
3	Tatyana Alexeyeva	Russia	50.90
4th	Kim Graham	United States	51.72
5	LaDonna Antoine	United States	52.37
6th	Naděžda Koštovalová	Czech Republic	52.61
7th	Damayanthi darsha	Sri Lanka	53.49
8th	Tonique Williams	Bahamas	54.23

Quarter-finals 3

August 2, 1997, 8:15 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jearl Miles Clark	United States	50.66
2	Cathy Freeman	Australia	50.75
3	Lorraine Fenton	Jamaica	51.03
4th	Olabisi Afolabi	Nigeria	51.07
5	Donna Fraser	Great Britain	51.11
6th	Norfalia Carabali	Colombia	51.42
7th	Tatiana Chebykina	Russia	51.57
8th	Patrizia Spuri	Italy	52.15

Semifinals

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

Semi-final run 1

Donna Fraser had qualified for the semifinals, but could not start there

August 3, 1997, 7:20 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jearl Miles Clark	United States	50.05
2	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	50.06
3	Cathy Freeman	Australia	50.11
4th	Pauline Davis	Bahamas	50.77
5	Lorraine Fenton	Jamaica	50.90
6th	Olga Kotlyarova	Russia	51.03
7th	Anja Rücker	Germany	51.94
DNS	Donna Fraser	Great Britain

Semi-final run 2

August 3, 1997, 7:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	50.21
2	Grit Breuer	Germany	50.33
3	Helena Fuchsová	Czech Republic	50.69
4th	Tatyana Alexeyeva	Russia	50.98
5	Maicel Malone	United States	51.40
6th	Allison Curbishley	Great Britain	51.42
7th	Olabisi Afolabi	Nigeria	51.44
8th	Kim Graham	United States	51.54

final

World champion Cathy Freeman was second in the 1996 Olympics and third in the 1995 World Cup with the 4 x 100 meter relay of her country - in 2000 the Olympic victory should follow

August 4, 1997, 8:05 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Cathy Freeman	Australia	49.77
2	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	49.79
3	Jearl Miles Clark	United States	49.90
4th	Grit Breuer	Germany	50.06
5	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	50.27
6th	Helena Fuchsová	Czech Republic	50.66
7th	Pauline Davis	Bahamas	50.68
8th	Tatyana Alexeyeva	Russia	51.37

• 

  Jearl Miles-Clark, 1993 world champion and winner of numerous medals with her country's 4 x 400 meter relay , was third in the World Cup as in 1995

• 

  Grit Breuer (here as the winner of the GDR championships in 1989) , vice world champion in 1991 and European champion in 1990 , who also took part in many relay medals in her country, took fourth place

Video

• Women's 400m Final World Athletics Championships Athens 1997 , video posted on youtube.com August 26, 2016, accessed June 27, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 4, 2020
• Women 400m Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed May 18, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 400 m, Athens 1997, p. 263 (PDF; 10.3 MB), English, accessed on June 27, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 27, 2020