1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	46 athletes from 33 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 23, 1988 (preliminary round) September 24, 1988 (quarter-finals) September 25, 1988 (semi-finals) September 26, 1988 (final)
Medalists Olha Bryshina ( URS )   Petra Müller ( GDR )   Olga Nazarova ( URS )

The women's 400-meter run at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 23, 24, 25 and 26, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 46 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Olha Bryshina from the Soviet Union. She won ahead of Petra Müller from the GDR and Olga Nazarowa from the Soviet Union.

In addition to the medalist, Kirsten Emmelmann and Dagmar Neubauer competed for the GDR. Both were eliminated in the semi-finals. Helga Arendt and Ute Thimm took part
for the Federal Republic of Germany . Thimm made it to the semifinals and failed there. Arendt reached the final and was seventh. Runners from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 1984	Valerie Brisco-Hooks ( USA )	48.83 s	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Olha Bryshina ( Soviet Union )	49.38 s	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Marita Koch ( GDR )	48.22 s	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American Champion 1987	Ana Fidelia Quirot ( Cuba )	50.27 s	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Norfalia Carabalí ( Colombia )	51.70 s	Caracas 1987
South American Champion 1987	Liliana Chalá ( Ecuador )	52.9 s	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Pillavulakandi Usha ( India )	52.31 s	Singapore 1987
African champion in 1988	Airat Bakare ( Nigeria )	52.15 s	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	47.80 s	Marita Koch ( GDR )	Canberra , Australia	October 6, 1985
Olympic record	48.83 s	Valerie Brisco-Hooks ( USA )	Los Angeles final , USA	August 6, 1984

Preliminary round

Date: September 23, 1988

The runners competed in seven preliminary runs. The first four athletes per run qualified for the quarter-finals. In addition, the four fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olga Nazarova	Soviet Union	52.18 s
2	Blanca Lacambra	Spain	53.04 s
3	Charmaine Crooks	Canada	53.58 s
4th	Liliana Chalá	Ecuador	53.74 s
5	Pat Beckford	Great Britain	54.39 s
6th	Yang Gyeong-hui	South Korea	58.18 s
7th	Juliana Obiong Nzang	Equatorial Guinea	1: 07.58 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dagmar Neubauer	GDR	52.51 s
2	Marita Payne-Wiggins	Canada	52.70 s
3	Airat Bakare	Nigeria	52.83 s
4th	Fabienne Ficher	France	53.42 s
5	Farida Kyakutewa	Uganda	56.00 s
6th	Kungu Bakombo	Zaire	57.85 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Maria Magnólia Figueiredo	Brazil	51.74 s
2	Petra Müller	GDR	51.93 s
3	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	52.19 s
4th	Loreen Hall	Great Britain	53.13 s
5	Sun Sumei	People's Republic of China	53.46 s
6th	Yolande Straughn	Barbados	53.62 s
DNS	Gerda Haas	Austria

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Diane Dixon	United States	52.45 s
2	Ute Thimm	BR Germany	52.79 s
3	Yvonne van Dorp	Netherlands	52.84 s
4th	Évelyne Élien	France	52.90 s
5	Marilyn Dewarder	Guyana	54.76 s
6th	May Sardouk	Lebanon	1: 00.01 min
DNS	Sheila Seebaluck	Mauritius

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Valerie Brisco	United States	51.96 s
2	Maree Holland	Australia	52.29 s
3	Norfalia Carabalí	Colombia	53.27 s
4th	Kirsten Emmelmann	GDR	54.02 s
5	Assumpta Achuo-Bei	Cameroon	55.22 s
6th	Josephine Singarayar	Malaysia	56.06 s
7th	Lasnet Nkouka	People's Republic of the Congo	57.19 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	51.94 s
2	Linda Keough	Great Britain	52.26 s
3	Cathy Rattray-Williams	Jamaica	52.39 s
4th	Celestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast	52.48 s
5	Alapurackal Kuttan-Mathews	India	53.41 s
6th	Ruth Morris	American Virgin Islands	55.60 s
7th	Barbara Selkridge	Antigua and Barbuda	55.96 s

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Denean Howard	United States	52.26 s
2	Helga Arendt	BR Germany	52.69 s
3	Aissatou Tandian	Senegal	52.95 s
4th	Jillian Richardson	Canada	53.06 s
5	Nathalie Simon	France	53.30 s
6th	Feng-Hua Chang	Chinese Taipei	56.10 s
7th	Agnes Griffith	Grenada	57.09 s

Quarter finals

Date: September 24, 1988

The first four athletes (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the semi-finals in each of the four races.

Run 1

GDR runner Kirsten Emmelmann reached the semi-finals and was eliminated there as the fifth of her run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Maree Holland	Australia	50.90 s
2	Kirsten Emmelmann	GDR	51.02 s
3	Denean Howard	United States	51.02 s
4th	Ute Thimm	BR Germany	51.18 s
5	Maria Magnólia Figueiredo	Brazil	51.32 s
6th	Airat Bakare	Nigeria	52.86 s
7th	Loreen Hall	Great Britain	53.42 s
DNS	Nathalie Simon	France

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	51.90 s
2	Diane Dixon	United States	51.98 s
3	Helga Arendt	BR Germany	52.08 s
4th	Jillian Richardson	Canada	52.33 s
5	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	52.90 s
6th	Évelyne Élien	France	53.36 s
7th	Sun Sumei	People's Republic of China	53.58 s
8th	Yolande Straughn	Barbados	54.22 s

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Petra Müller	GDR	51.45 s
2	Marita Payne-Wiggins	Canada	51.73 s
3	Norfalia Carabalí	Colombia	51.76 s
4th	Cathy Rattray-Williams	Jamaica	51.81 s
5	Linda Keough	Great Britain	51.91 s
6th	Yvonne van Dorp	Netherlands	53.50 s
7th	Liliana Chalá	Ecuador	53.83 s
8th	Alapurackal Kuttan-Mathews	India	53.93 s

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olga Nazarova	Soviet Union	50.26 s
2	Valerie Brisco	United States	51.24 s
3	Dagmar Neubauer	GDR	51.48 s
4th	Charmaine Crooks	Canada	51.64 s
5	Celestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast	52.04 s
6th	Aissatou Tandian	Senegal	52.33 s
7th	Fabienne Ficher	France	52.95 s
8th	Blanca Lacambra	Spain	53.76 s

Semifinals

Date: September 25, 1988

The first four athletes in each of the two races (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the final.

Run 1

Dagmar Neubauer from the GDR was eliminated as eighth of their semi-final run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olga Nazarova	Soviet Union	49.11 s
2	Petra Müller	GDR	49.50 s
3	Diane Dixon	United States	49.84 s
4th	Denean Howard	United States	49.87 s
5	Jillian Richardson	Canada	49.91 s
6th	Ute Thimm	BR Germany	50.28 s
7th	Marita Payne-Wiggins	Canada	50.29 s
8th	Dagmar Neubauer	GDR	50.92 s

Run 2

Silver medalist Petra Müller from the GDR

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	49.33 s
2	Valerie Brisco	United States	49.90 s
3	Maree Holland	Australia	50.24 s
4th	Helga Arendt	BR Germany	50.36 s
5	Kirsten Emmelmann	GDR	50.39 s
6th	Cathy Rattray-Williams	Jamaica	50.82 s
7th	Charmaine Crooks	Canada	51.63 s
8th	Norfalia Carabalí	Colombia	52.65 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Olha Bryshina	Soviet Union	48.65 s	OR
2	Petra Müller	GDR	49.45 s
3	Olga Nazarova	Soviet Union	49.90 s
4th	Valerie Brisco	United States	50.16 s
5	Diane Dixon	United States	50.72 s
6th	Denean Howard	United States	51.12 s
7th	Helga Arendt	BR Germany	51.17 s
8th	Maree Holland	Australia	51.25 s

Date: September 26, 1988

All three Americans qualified for the final. Two athletes from the Soviet Union and one each from the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany and an Australian completed the field.

After the end of Marita Koch's career , the role of favorite fell to world champion Olha Bryshina from the Soviet Union. Her fiercest rivals were the 1984 Olympic champion Valerie Brisco from the USA and the vice world champion Petra Müller, later Petra Schersing, from the GDR.

In the first 200 meters, the two US runners Denean Howard on the outside and Brisco, which ran on the inside, set a hell of a pace and led clearly. Howard was in front of Brisco. The other runners came closer in the finish curve and at the beginning of the home straight Bryshina had taken the lead in front of Brisco, while Howard had fallen far behind. Bryshina's compatriot Olga Nazarova was in third place with a clear lead over fourth-placed Müller. Olha Bryshina had by far the best stamina and crossed the finish line as the new Olympic champion, eight tenths of a second ahead. Behind her, Petra Müller mobilized all her strength and pulled past the two runners in front of her to the silver medal. Olga Nazarowa won bronze even before the clearly declining Valerie Brisco. The two Americans Diane Dixon and Denean Howard followed in fifth and sixth in front of the German Helga Arendt and the Australian Maree Holland. With her winning time of 48.65 s, Olha Bryshina undercut Valerie Brisco's 1984 Olympic record by almost two tenths of a second.

Olha Bryshina won the first Soviet Olympic victory over 400 meters for women.

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed January 29, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 254–256, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018

Video

• 1988 Seoul Olympic Games Women's 400 , published July 21, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed January 29, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 794 , accessed on January 29, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 254f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018
3. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul, volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 255f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 256, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 29, 2018