World Athletics Championships 1997/1500 m for women

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	34 athletes from 22 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 2nd (preliminary) August 3rd (semi-finals) August 5th (final)
Medalists Carla Sacramento ( POR )   Regina Jacobs ( USA )   Anita Weyermann ( SUI )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The women's 1,500-meter run at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held from August 2nd to 5th, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

World champion was the Portuguese World Cup third in 1995, Carla Sacramento . She won ahead of the American Regina Jacobs . Bronze went to Anita Weyermann from Switzerland .

Existing records

World record	3: 50.46 min	Qu Yunxia	Beijing , People's Republic of China	September 11, 1993
World championship record	3: 58.56 min	Tetiana Samolenko	World Cup 1987 in Rome , Italy	5th September 1987

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships. The 4-minute mark was not undercut in any race.

Preliminary round

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

Forward 1

Kelly Holmes (photo: 2009) , 1995 vice world champion, 1994 vice European champion and also successful over 800 meters , gave up the race prematurely

August 2, 1997, 9:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	4: 08.90
2	Olga Nelyubova	Russia	4: 09.02
3	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 09.25
4th	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	4: 09.28
5	Carmen Wüstenhagen	Germany	4: 09.34
6th	Frédérique Quentin	France	4: 11.10
7th	Karolína Skoúrti	Greece	4: 11.88
8th	Nouria Mérah-Benida	Algeria	4: 12.21
9	Sarah Thorsett	United States	4: 17.07
10	Samira Raif	Morocco	4: 19.54
DNF	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain

Forward 2

Helena Javornik (here at the Zagreb Marathon 2011) had no chance of advancing with her eleventh place in the second run

August 2, 1997, 9:09 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 07.70
2	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 07.90
3	Maite Zúñiga	Spain	4: 08.09
4th	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	4: 08.13
5	Joanne Pavey	Great Britain	4: 08.23
6th	Anita Weyermann	Switzerland	4: 08.30
7th	Margarita Marusova	Russia	4: 08.45
8th	Kathy Butler	Canada	4: 08.87
9	Andrea Šuldesová	Czech Republic	4: 09.49
10	Tetyana Bilovol	Ukraine	4: 12.17
11	Helena Javornik	Slovenia	4: 16.21
DNS	Natalia Al Farran	Lebanon

Forward 3

August 2, 1997, 9:18 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Suzy Hamilton	United States	4: 10.12
2	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 10.13
3	Malgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 10.17
4th	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	4: 10.22
5	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 10.23
6th	Patricia Djaté-Taillard	France	4: 10.37
7th	Robyn Meagher	Canada	4: 10.44
8th	Sinead Evans	Ireland	4: 10.45
9	Nataliya Ivanova	Ukraine	4: 10.79
10	Sylvia Kühnemund	Germany	4: 11.21
11	Monika Kinnunen	Finland	4: 11.71
12	Shura Hotesa	Ethiopia	4: 21.27

Semifinals

In each of the two semi-finals, the first five athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the two fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Semi-final run 1

Joanne Pavey did not make it into the final with her eleventh place in the first semifinal run

August 3, 1997, 8:35 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Olga Nelyubova	Russia	4: 04.67
2	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 04.69
3	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 04.97
4th	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	4: 05.31
5	Anita Weyermann	Switzerland	4: 05.76
6th	Maite Zúñiga	Spain	4: 06.66
7th	Malgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 06.86
8th	Kathy Butler	Canada	4: 07.68
9	Nataliya Ivanova	Ukraine	4: 10.39
10	Patricia Djaté-Taillard	France	4: 10.85
11	Joanne Pavey	Great Britain	4: 11.22
12	Carmen Wüstenhagen	Germany	4: 15.08

Semi-final run 2

August 3, 1997, 8:45 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	4: 06.75
2	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 06.76
3	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 06.90
4th	Andrea Šuldesová	Czech Republic	4: 07.02
5	Robyn Meagher	Canada	4: 07.06
6th	Suzy Hamilton	United States	4: 07.19
7th	Sinead Evans	Ireland	4: 07.46
8th	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	4: 07.89
9	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 10.37
10	Margarita Marusova	Russia	4: 14.98
11	Frédérique Quentin	France	4: 16.15
12	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	4: 22.74

final

• 

  The vice world champion from 1993 , world champion from 1995 over 5000 and European champion from 1994 over 3000 meters Sonia O'Sullivan had to be satisfied with eighth place

• 

  Malin Ewerlöf (Photo: 2014) reached the final and was tenth there

August 5, 1997, 7:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 04.24
2	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 04.63
3	Anita Weyermann	Switzerland	4: 04.70
4th	Maite Zúñiga	Spain	4: 04.80
5	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 06.18
6th	Andrea Šuldesová	Czech Republic	4: 06.33
7th	Olga Nelyubova	Russia	4: 07.34
8th	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	4: 07.81
9	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 08.15
10	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	4: 08.68
11	Robyn Meagher	Canada	4: 10.83
12	Malgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 13.25

Video

• 1997, Sonia O'Sullivan, 1500m final, World Athletics Championships, Athens on youtube.com, accessed June 28, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 28, 2020
• Women 1500m Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed June 28, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 1500 m, Athens 1997, p. 275 (PDF; 10.3 MB), English, accessed on June 28, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 28, 2020