1984 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	26 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 5, 1984 (preliminary round) August 6, 1984 (semi-finals) August 8, 1984 (final)
Medalists Nawal El Moutawakel ( MAR )   Judi Brown ( USA )   Cristieana Cojocaru ( ROM )

The women's 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 5, 6 and 8, 1984 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . 26 athletes took part in the Olympic debut of this discipline in women's athletics.

The Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakel became the first Olympic champion . She won ahead of the American Judi Brown and the Romanian Cristieana Cojocaru .

Runners from the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part. Athletes from the GDR were also not there because of the Olympic boycott.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion in 1980	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held
World Champion 1983	Yekaterina Fessenko ( Soviet Union )	54.14 s	Helsinki 1983
European champion 1982	Ann-Louise Skoglund ( Sweden )	54.58 s	Athens 1982
Pan American Champion 1983	Judi Brown ( USA )	56.03 s	Caracas 1983
Central America and Caribbean champion 1983	Alma Vázquez ( Mexico )	59.57 s	Havana 1983
South America Champion 1983	Conceição Geremias ( Brazil )	59.5 s	Santa Fe 1983
Asian champion 1983	Yoko Sato ( Japan )	59.89 s	Kuwait City 1983
African champion 1982	Nawal El Moutawakel ( Morocco )	58.42 s	Cairo 1982

Existing records

World record	53.58 s	Margarita Ponomarjowa ( Soviet Union )	Kiev , Soviet Union (now Ukraine )	June 22, 1984
Olympic record	Competition at the Olympic Games not yet held

Preliminary round

Date: August 5, 1984

In the preliminary round, the 26 participants were drawn in four runs. The first four athletes (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the semi-finals.

With 55.75 s, Ann-Louise Skoglund from Sweden ran the fastest lead time in run 4. The slowest time with which an athlete could qualify for the semi-finals was 59.09 s, achieved in the same run by Andrea Page from Canada. The fastest athlete who failed to qualify was New Zealander Lynette Grime, who was eliminated in run 2 with 58.02 seconds.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Judi Brown	United States	55.97 s	first OR
2	Pilavullakandi Usha	India	56.81 s
3	Debbie Flintoff	Australia	57.20 s
4th	Tuija Helander	Finland	57.22 s
5	Lih-jiau Lai	Chinese Taipei	58.54 s
6th	Alma Vázquez	Mexico	1: 00.86 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	56.49 s
2	Sharrieffa Barksdale	United States	56.89 s
3	Sandra Farmer	Jamaica	57.06 s
4th	Gladys Taylor	Great Britain	57.64 s
5	Lynette Grime	New Zealand	58.02 s
6th	Dana Wright	Canada	58.17 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands	56.67 s
2	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	56.94 s
3	Ruth Kyalisima	Uganda	57.38 s
4th	Giuseppina Cirulli	Italy	57.49 s
5	Averill Dwyer-Brown	Jamaica	58.42 s
6th	Angela Wright-Scott	United States	59.77 s
7th	Agrippina de la Cruz	Philippines	1: 02.70 min

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	55.75 s	OR
2	Maria Usifo	Nigeria	57.78 s
3	Susan Morley	Great Britain	58.71 s
4th	Andrea Page	Canada	59.09 s
5	Manathoor Valsamma	India	1: 00.03 min
6th	Cheryl Blackman	Barbados	1: 01.19 min
7th	Mary Parr	Ireland	1: 01.66 min

Semifinals

Date: August 6, 1984

In each of the two semi-finals, the first four (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the final.

The fastest semifinal time was Ann-Louise Skoglund with 55.17 s in run 1.

Run 1

Olga Commandeur from the Netherlands qualified for the semi-finals, where she was eliminated in sixth of her run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	55.17 s	OR
2	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	55.24 s
3	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	55.65 s
4th	Sandra Farmer	Jamaica	56.05 s
5	Sharrieffa Barksdale	United States	56.19 s
6th	Giuseppina Cirulli	Italy	56.45 s
7th	Susan Morley	Great Britain	56.67 s
8th	Andrea Page	Canada	57.89 s

Run 2

The Moroccan Olympic champion Nawal El Moutawakel in a photo from 2009

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Pilavullakandi Usha	India	55.94 s
2	Judi Brown	United States	55.97 s
3	Debbie Flintoff	Australia	56.24 s
4th	Tuija Helander	Finland	56.59 s
5	Gladys Taylor	Great Britain	56.72 s
6th	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands	57.01 s
7th	Ruth Kyalisima	Uganda	57.02 s
8th	Maria Usifo	Nigeria	58.55 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	54.61 s	OR
2	Judi Brown	United States	55.20 s
3	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	55.41 s
4th	Pilavullakandi Usha	India	55.42 s
5	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	55.43 s
6th	Debbie Flintoff	Australia	56.21 s
7th	Tuija Helander	Finland	56.55 s
8th	Sandra Farmer	Jamaica	57.15 s

Date: August 8, 1984

Athletes from eight countries qualified for the final. An American, an Indian, a Finnish, a Romanian, a Moroccan, a Jamaican, a Swedish and an Australian woman competed. The dominant athletes from the Soviet Union and the GDR were not there because of the Olympic boycott. That reduced the value of this competition considerably. The group of medal contenders mainly included the Swedish European champion from 1982 Ann-Louise Skoglund. At last year's World Championships , she was sixth as the best runner who did not come from the USSR or GDR. The US-American Judi Brown and the Romanian Cristieana Cojocaru, eighth of the World Cup, could also hope to achieve top positions.

In the final, the Moroccan African champion Nawal El Moutawakel took the lead at the first hurdle. She kept this lead right through to the finish and won the gold medal completely surprisingly. The Australian Debbie Flintoff and the Swede Ann-Louise Skoglund were the toughest pursuers up to the last corner. But both could not keep their pace on the home straight and were passed by the US runner Judi Brown, who secured the silver medal. While Flintoff fell further and further behind, there was a duel for the bronze medal between Skoglund, the Romanian Cristieana Cojocaru and the Indian Pilavullakandi Usha. Cristieana Cojocaru prevailed and prevailed with a hundredth of a second ahead of Usha, who in turn was a hundredth of a second ahead of Ann-Louise Skoglund. Debbie Flintoff crossed the finish line in sixth ahead of Tuija Helander from Finland and Sandra Farmer from Jamaica.

Nawal El Moutawakel was the first African woman and the first Muslim woman to win Olympic gold. It was also the first ever Olympic victory for Morocco.

literature

• Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Sarajevo with contributions by Ulrich Kaiser and Heinz Maegerlein , eds. Manfred Vorderwülbecke , C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01851-2 , p. 47

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed January 14, 2018
• Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 263f, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 14, 2018

Video

• Nawal El Moutawakel on winning the first Women's Olympic 400m Hurdles | Olympic Rewind , published June 13, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed January 14, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 797 , accessed on January 14, 2018
2. ↑ Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 263, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 14, 2018
3. ↑ ^{a b} Los Angeles 1984 Official Report, 3, Results of the Games , p. 264, English / French (PDF, 11 MB), accessed on January 14, 2018
4. ↑ SportsReference 400 m hurdles , accessed January 14, 2018