1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	24 athletes from 16 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	October 17, 1968 (preliminary) October 18, 1968 (semi-finals) October 19, 1968 (final)
Medalists Madeline Manning ( USA )   Ileana Silai ( ROM )   Maria Gommers ( NED )

The women's 800-meter run at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was held on October 17, 18 and 19, 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 24 athletes took part.

The American Madeline Manning became the Olympic champion . Silver went to Ileana Silai from Romania , bronze went to Maria Gommers from the Netherlands.

The GDR - officially East Germany - was represented by Karin Burneleit and Barbara Wieck . Wieck was eliminated in the preliminary run, Burneleit failed in the semifinals.
Runners from the Federal Republic of Germany (officially Germany), Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	2: 00.5 min	Vera Nikolić ( Yugoslavia )	London , UK	20th July 1968
Olympic record	2: 01.1 min	Ann Packer ( Great Britain )	Tokyo finals , Japan	October 20, 1964

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of four heats on October 17th. In the preliminary round and also in the semi-finals on October 18, the four best running teams qualified for the next round. The final took place on October 19th.

Time schedule

October 17th, 11.00 a.m .: Preliminaries
October 18th, 4.40 p.m .: Semi-finals
October 19, 5.00 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Preliminary round

Date: October 17, 1968, from 11 a.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Vera Nikolić	Yugoslavia	2: 05.7 min	2: 05.78 min
2	Laine Erik	Soviet Union	2: 06.5 min	2: 06.52 min
3	Paola Pigni	Italy	2: 06.7 min	2: 06.72 min
4th	Karin Burneleit	GDR	2: 07.1 min	2: 07.13 min
5	Francie Kraker	United States	2: 07.3 min	2: 07.34 min
6th	Elizabeth Chesire	Kenya	2: 10.9 min	2: 10.92 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maria Gommers	Netherlands	2: 04.0 min	2: 04.06 min
2	Ileana Silai	Romania	2: 04.1 min	2: 04.11 min
3	Sheila Taylor	Great Britain	2: 04.1 min	2: 04.17 min
4th	Anna Simina	Soviet Union	2: 04.4 min	2: 04.48 min
5	Barbara Wieck	GDR	2: 08.5 min	2: 08.18 min
6th	Channa Shezifi	Israel	2: 09.2 min	2: 09.23 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2: 09.5 min	2: 09.55 min
2	Doris Brown	United States	2: 09.5 min	2: 09.54 min
3	Pat Lowe	Ireland	2: 09.5 min	2: 09.57 min
4th	Sylvia Potts	New Zealand	2: 09.6 min	2: 09.63 min
5	Eeva Haimi	Finland	2: 09.6 min	2: 09.67 min
6th	Tilly van der Made	Netherlands	2: 10.5 min	2: 10.59 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Madeline Manning	United States	2: 08.7 min	2: 08.74 min
2	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2: 08.9 min	2: 08.94 min
3	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	2: 08.9 min	2: 08.96 min
4th	Ilya Keizer	Netherlands	2: 08.9 min	2: 08.96 min
5	Annelise Damm Olesen	Denmark	2: 09.0 min	2: 09.1 min
6th	Joan Page	Great Britain	2: 10.2 min	2: 10.21 min

Semifinals

Date: October 18, 1968, from 4.40 p.m.

Maria Gommers, No. 60, and Ilja Keizer-Laman, No. 62, in a competition in 1969. Gommers won the bronze medal in Mexico City , Keizer failed in the semifinals

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Madeline Manning	United States	2: 05.8 min	2: 05.82 min
2	Ileana Silai	Romania	2: 05.9 min	2: 05.94 min
3	Pat Lowe	Great Britain	2: 06.6 min	2: 06.62 min
4th	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2: 07.0 min	2: 07.03 min
5	Karin Burneleit	GDR	2: 08.4 min	2: 08.41 min
6th	Anna Simina	Soviet Union	2: 08.5 min	2: 08.54 min
7th	Ilya Keizer	Netherlands	2: 14.8 min	2: 14.88 min
DNF	Vera Nikolić	Yugoslavia

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maria Gommers	Netherlands	2: 05.1 min	2: 05.13 min
2	Doris Brown	United States	2: 05.2 min	2: 05.23 min
3	Sheila Taylor	Great Britain	2: 05.2 min	2: 05.29 min
4th	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2: 05.5 min	2: 05.58 min
5	Laine Erik	Soviet Union	2: 06.0 min	2: 06.09 min
6th	Sylvia Potts	New Zealand	2: 07.2 min	2: 07.27 min
7th	Paola Pigni	Italy	2: 07.8 min	2: 07.82 min
8th	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	2: 13.5 min	2: 13.59 min

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Madeline Manning	United States	2: 00.9 min	2: 00.92 min	OR
2	Ileana Silai	Romania	2: 02.5 min	2: 02.58 min
3	Maria Gommers	Netherlands	2: 02.6 min	2: 02.63 min
4th	Sheila Taylor	Great Britain	2: 03.8 min	2: 03.81 min
5	Doris Brown	United States	2: 03.9 min	2: 03.98 min
6th	Pat Lowe	Great Britain	2: 04.2 min	2: 04.25 min
7th	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2: 06.8 min	2: 06.99 min
8th	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2: 08.2 min	2: 08.28 min

Date: October 19, 1968, 5:50 p.m.

The favorite was the Yugoslav world record holder Vera Nikolić. For unknown reasons, however, she had stopped her semi-final race after 300 meters. She had been under considerable pressure of expectation from her compatriots and maybe the nervous strain was just too great.

In the final, the US runner Madeline Manning took the lead at a fast pace. At 300 meters she was replaced by the French 1964 Olympic runner-up, Maryvonne Dupureur. The 400 meter mark was passed in a quick 59.1 seconds. Here the Romanian Ileana Silai took the lead, Manning initially stayed in Silai's slipstream. Then the American started her finish, passed the Romanian and pulled away more and more with an ever increasing lead. At the finish she had a lead of about 15 meters. Madeline Manning was Olympic champion ahead of Ileana Silai, who just managed to defend her second place against Maria Gommers from the Netherlands.
The winner improved Ann Packer's Olympic record by two tenths of a second and stayed just four tenths above the world record.

Madeline Manning won the first US Olympic victory in the women's 800 meters .

Ileana Silai and Maria Gommers won the first medals in this discipline for their countries.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 384f

Web links

• SportsReference 800m , accessed November 10, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 62f, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 535, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 641 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 10, 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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. 10f, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 535, engl./frz. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
4. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 384
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 10, 2017