1964 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	36 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	October 15, 1964 (preliminary) October 16, 1964 (semi-finals) October 17, 1964 (final)
Medalists Betty Cuthbert ( AUS )   Ann Packer ( GBR )   Judy Amoore ( AUS )

The women's 400-meter run at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo was held from October 15 to 17, 1964 in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. 23 athletes took part in the Olympic premiere of this discipline in women's athletics.

The Australian Betty Cuthbert became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the British Ann Packer and the Australian Judy Amoore .

Three Germans started, athletes from Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part. Erna Maisack was eliminated in the preliminary round. Margarete Buscher reached the semi-finals and failed there as the seventh of her run. Gertrud Schmidt qualified for the final and finished seventh there.

Existing records

World record	51.9 s	Shin Kim-dan ( North Korea )	Pyongyang , North Korea	October 23, 1962
Olympic record	There was not yet an Olympic record for the 400 meters , as this competition was held in Tokyo for the first time.

North Korea was not recognized by the World Athletics Federation IAAF , which is why no North Korean athletes started in Tokyo. Nevertheless, the time achieved by Shin Kim-dan was officially added to the record lists of October 23, 1962.

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of three preliminary runs on October 15th. The five best starters as well as the fastest time below qualified for the semi-finals on October 16. From this, the four best participants reached the final on October 17th.

Time schedule

October 15, 11.00 a.m .: Preliminaries
October 16, 2.15 p.m .: Semi-finals
October 17, 3.40 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Tokyo local time (UTC + 9)

The athletes directly qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue, those athletes who have qualified over time are highlighted in light green.

Prelims

Date: October 15, 1964, from 11 a.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, 21 ° C, humidity approx. 51%

Forward 1

Tilly van der Zwaard from the Netherlands reached the final and was sixth

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Antónia Munkácsi	Hungary	54.4 s	54.42 s	first OR
2	Tilly van der Zwaard	Netherlands	54.8 s	54.86 s
3	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	56.0 s	k. A.
4th	Joy Grieveson	Great Britain	56.8 s
5	Kiyoko Ogawa	Japan	57.6 s
6th	Stephie D'Souza	India	58.0 s	k. A.
7th	Erna Maisack	Germany	58.6 s
8th	Ramazangiin Aldaa-nish	Mongolia	58.6 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Marija Itkina	Soviet Union	54.9 s	54.99s
2	Margarete Buscher	Germany	55.3 s	55.32 s
3	Una Morris	Jamaica	55.3 s	55.39 s
4th	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	55.4 s	55.42
5	Janell Smith	United States	55.5 s	55.56 s
6th	Patricia Kippax	Great Britain	55.5 s	55.57 s
7th	Abby Hoffman	Canada	55.9 s	55.98 s
8th	Samruay Charonggool	Thailand	1: 04.0 min	k. A.

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ann Packer	Great Britain	53.1 s	53.18 s	OR
2	Judy Amoore	Australia	53.8 s	53.85 s
3	Évelyne Lebret	France	54.8 s	k. A.
4th	Gertrud Schmidt	Germany	55.1 s
5	Olga Kazi	Hungary	56.5 s
6th	Mary Rajamani	Malaysia	57.8 s	k. A.
7th	Han Myung-hee	South Korea

Semifinals

Date: October 16, 1964, from 2.15 p.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, approx. 22 ° C, humidity approx. 43%

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ann Packer	Great Britain	52.7 s	52.77 s	OR
2	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	53.8 s	k. A.
3	Antónia Munkácsi	Hungary	54.0 s
4th	Évelyne Lebret	France	54.5 s
5	Joy Grieveson	Great Britain	54.8 s	k. A.
6th	Una Morris	Jamaica	54.9 s
7th	Margarete Buscher	Germany	55.2 s
8th	Kiyoko Ogawa	Japan	57.1 s

Run 2

The Hungarian Olga Kazi did not start.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Judy Amoore	Australia	53.3 s	53.39 s
2	Marija Itkina	Soviet Union	53.5 s	53.50 s
3	Tilly van der Zwaard	Netherlands	54.1 s	54.19 s
4th	Gertrud Schmidt	Germany	54.2 s	54.27 s
5	Patricia Kippax	Great Britain	54.4 s	k. A.
6th	Janell Smith	United States	54.5 s
7th	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	55.3 s

final

Silver Medal Winner: Ann Packer, Great Britain

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	52.0 s	52.01 s	OR
2	Ann Packer	Great Britain	52.2 s	52.60 s
3	Judy Amoore	Australia	53.4 s	k. A.
4th	Antónia Munkácsi	Hungary	54.4 s	k. A.
5	Marija Itkina	Soviet Union	54.6 s
6th	Tilly van der Zwaard	Netherlands	55.2 s
7th	Gertrud Schmidt	Germany	55.4 s
8th	Évelyne Lebret	France	55.5 s

Date: October 17, 1964, 3:40 p.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, approx. 23 ° C, humidity approx. 66%

The favorites were the former world record holder Marija Itkina, European champion from 1958 and 1962 , and the Briton Ann Packer. She had run the fastest time of all participants in the semifinals and set a new Olympic and, at the same time, new European record. The world record holder Shin Kim-dan from North Korea could not take part in these games because her association was not recognized by the IAAF World Athletics Federation .
In the final, the Australian Betty Cuthbert took the lead early on. She made a comeback on this new Olympic track after her three sprint gold medals in 1956 . After 200 meters she was already two meters ahead. Packer caught up on the home stretch, but could no longer reach the Australian, although she improved by half a second compared to the semi-finals. With a new Olympic record, which was only a tenth of a second above the world record, Betty Cuthbert became the first Olympic champion over 400 meters ahead of Ann Packer, who was to win gold over 800 meters three days later . Bronze went to Judy Amoore from Australia. The Hungarian Antónia Munkácsi and the Soviet co-favorite Marija Itkina were fourth and fifth.

For Betty Cuthbert it was the fourth Olympic victory in her career. In 1956 in Melbourne she had already achieved three Olympic victories ( 100 meters , 200 meters and 4 x 100 meter relay ).

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 298f

Video

• Tokyo 1964 [Betty Cuthbert 400m (amateur footage)], published June 12, 2017 on youtube.com, accessed October 30, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed October 30, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1964 p. 91f engl. (PDF), accessed October 30, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 641 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 30 October 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 17 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 30, 2017 
3. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 91f (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 30, 2017 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report of the Olympic Games 1964 ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 92 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed October 30, 2017 
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed October 30, 2017