1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	35 athletes from 25 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 25, 1988 (preliminary round) September 26, 1988 (semi-finals) September 28, 1988 (final)
Medalists Debbie Flintoff-King ( AUS )   Tazzjana Ljadouskaja ( URS )   Ellen Fiedler ( GDR )

The women's 400-meter hurdles at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 25, 26 and 28, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 35 athletes took part.

The Australian Debbie Flintoff-King became Olympic champion . She won ahead of Tazzjana Ljadouskaja from the Soviet Union and Ellen Fiedler from the GDR.

In addition to medalists Fiedler, Sabine Busch and Susanne Losch competed for the GDR . Losch was eliminated in the semifinals, Busch reached the final and finished fourth.
Also Gudrun Abt from the Federal Republic of Germany reached the final. She came in sixth.
The Swiss Anita Protti was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 1984	Nawal El Moutawakel ( Morocco )	54.61 s	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Sabine Busch ( GDR )	53.62 s	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Marina Stepanova ( Soviet Union )	53.32 s	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American Champion 1987	Judi Brown ( USA )	54.23 s	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Belkis Chávez ( Cuba )	48.82 s	Caracas 1987
South American Champion 1987	Liliana Chalá ( Ecuador )	58.46 s	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Pilavullakandi Usha ( India )	56.48 s	Singapore 1987
African champion in 1988	Maria Usifo ( Nigeria )	56.74 s	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	52.94 s	Marina Stepanova ( Soviet Union )	Tashkent , Soviet Union (now Uzbekistan )	17th September 1986
Olympic record	54.61 s	Nawal El Moutawakel ( Morocco )	Los Angeles final , USA	August 8, 1984

Preliminary round

Date: September 25, 1988

The participants competed in a total of five preliminary runs. The first three athletes of each run qualified for the semi-finals. In addition, the fastest time in the following, the so-called lucky loser , advanced. The directly qualified starters are highlighted in light blue, the lucky loser in light green.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Susanne Losch	BR Germany	55.90 s
2	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	55.91 s
3	Elaine McLaughlin	Great Britain	56.11 s
4th	Rose Tata-Muya	Kenya	56.18 s
5	Marie Womplou	Ivory Coast	57.35 s
6th	Christine Wynn	Canada	58.00 s
7th	Pilavullakandi Usha	India	59.55 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Sabine Busch	GDR	55.96 s
2	Margaretha Tromp	Netherlands	56.11 s
3	Genowefa Błaszak	Poland	56.18 s
4th	Jennifer Laurendet	Australia	56.44 s
5	Rosaline Edeh	Canada	56.59 s
6th	Ruth Kyalisima	Uganda	59.62 s
7th	Nenita Adan	Philippines	1: 01.92 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ellen Fiedler	GDR	54.58 s	OR
2	Anita Protti	Switzerland	54.81 s
3	Tatiana Kurochkina	Soviet Union	55.04 s
4th	LaTanya Sheffield	United States	55.61 s
5	Maria Usifo	Nigeria	55.99 s
6th	Helga Halldórsdóttir	Iceland	58.99 s
7th	Kim Soon-yes	South Korea	59.78 s

Forward 4

The British Sally Gunnell finished fifth in the Olympics

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Debbie Flintoff-King	Australia	54.99 s
2	Cristina Perez	Spain	55.29 s
3	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	55.44 s
4th	Irmgard Trojer	Italy	55.74 s
5	Leslie Maxie	United States	57.60 s
6th	Barbara Johnson	Ireland	58.61 s
7th	Feng-Hua Chang	Chinese Taipei	1: 00.16 min

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Gudrun Abbot	BR Germany	55.72 s
2	Schowonda Williams	United States	55.98 s
3	Chantal Beaugeant	France	56.03 s
4th	Sally Hamilton-Fleming	Australia	56.08 s
5	Liliana Chalá	Ecuador	57.15 s
6th	Semra Aksu	Turkey	57.20 s
7th	Simone Laidlow	Great Britain	59.28 s

Semifinals

Date: September 26, 1988

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

Run 1

The two GDR runners Sabine Busch (l.), Olympic champion, and Susanne Losch (r.), Who reached the semi-finals and was eliminated there in sixth place

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Debbie Flintoff-King	Australia	54.00 s	OR
2	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	54.01 s
3	LaTanya Sheffield	United States	54.36 s
4th	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	54.48 s
5	Anita Protti	Switzerland	54.56 s
6th	Susanne Losch	GDR	55.56 s
7th	Genowefa Błaszak	Poland	56.76 s
8th	Margaretha Tromp	Netherlands	57.57 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ellen Fiedler	GDR	54.28 s
2	Tatiana Kurochkina	Soviet Union	54.46 s
3	Gudrun Abbot	BR Germany	54.52 s
4th	Sabine Busch	GDR	54.71 s
5	Cristina Perez	Spain	55.23 s
6th	Elaine McLaughlin	Great Britain	55.91 s
7th	Schowonda Williams	United States	56.71 s
8th	Chantal Beaugeant	France	56.94 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Debbie Flintoff-King	Australia	53.17 s	OR
2	Tazzjana Ljadouskaja	Soviet Union	53.18 s
3	Ellen Fiedler	GDR	53.63 s
4th	Sabine Busch	GDR	53.69 s
5	Sally Gunnell	Great Britain	54.03 s
6th	Gudrun Abbot	BR Germany	54.04 s
7th	Tatiana Kurochkina	Soviet Union	54.39 s
8th	LaTanya Sheffield	United States	55.32 s

Date: September 28, 1988

Two runners from the GDR and two from the Soviet Union each qualified for the final. The final field was completed by one runner each from the Federal Republic of Germany, the USA, Great Britain and Australia.

The 1987 world champion Sabine Busch from the GDR and the Australian vice world champion Debbie Flintoff-King were particularly favored . The Soviet world record holder Marina Stepanova was unable to take part in Seoul due to an injury. Ellen Fiedler, DDR, and Flintoff-King had already improved the Olympic record from 1984 twice in the preliminary round and the semi-finals . Fiedler was also among the medal candidates.

In the final race, Fiedler took the lead up to the fifth hurdle. There the Soviet athlete Tazzjana Ljadouskaja replaced her from the top position. Halfway through the race, Flintoff-King was only fifth. But the Australian had divided the race well. With great stamina, she gradually passed all of the competitors in front of her and won Olympic gold. She improved her Olympic record from the semifinals again. Her success, however, was wafer-thin, with Debbie Flintoff-King finishing just a hundredth of a second ahead of silver medalist Tazzjana Ljadouskaja. Ellen Fiedler saved the bronze medal with a lead of six hundredths of a second over her teammate Sabine Busch. The British Sally Gunnell was fifth in the finish ahead of Gudrun Abt from the Federal Republic and Tatjana Kurotschkina from the Soviet Union. The American LaTanya Sheffield came in eighth.

With the exception of LaTanya Sheffield, all finalists were faster than the 1984 winner, Nawal El Moutawakel from Morocco . In Los Angeles 1984, Sheffield's time would have been enough for bronze.

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed January 31, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 261, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 31, 2018

Video

• 1988 Seoul Olympics 400m Hurdles Women , published April 16, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed January 31, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 797 , accessed on January 31, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 261, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 31, 2018