2000 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	42 athletes from 28 countries
Competition location	Stadium Australia
Competition phase	September 27, 2000 (preliminary round) September 28, 2000 (semi-finals) September 30, 2000 (final)
Medalists Nouria Mérah-Benida ( ALG )   Violeta Szekely ( ROM )   Gabriela Szabo ( ROM )

The women's 1,500-meter run at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney was held on September 27, 28 and 30, 2000 at Stadium Australia . 4283 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Algerian Nouria Mérah-Benida . She won ahead of the two Romanians Violeta Szekely and Gabriela Szabo .

Sabine Fischer and Anita Weyermann started for Switzerland . Weyermann was eliminated in the semi-finals, Fischer reached the final and finished ninth.

Athletes from Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 1996	Swetlana Masterkowa ( Russia )	4: 00.83 min	Atlanta 1996
World Champion 1999		3: 59.53 min	Seville 1999
European Champion 1998		4: 11.91 min	Budapest 1998
Pan American Champion 1999	Marla Runyan ( USA )	4: 16.86 min	Winnipeg 1999
Central America and Caribbean champion 1999	Isabel Juárez ( Mexico )	4: 26.64 min	Bridgetown 1999
South America Champion 1999	Bertha Sánchez ( Colombia )	4: 35.72 min	Bogotá 1999
Asian Champion 2000	Wu Qingdong ( People's Republic of China )	4: 17.82 min	Jakarta 2000
African champion 2000	Nouria Mérah-Benida ( Algeria )	4: 16.14 min	Algiers 2000
Oceania Champion 2000	Salome Tabuatalei ( Fiji )	5: 15.11 min	Adelaide 2000

Existing records

World record	3: 50.46 min	Qu Yunxia ( People's Republic of China )	Beijing , People's Republic of China	September 11, 1993
Olympic record	3: 53.96 min	Paula Ivan ( Romania )	Final from Seoul , South Korea	October 1, 1988

Note: All times are based on Sydney local time ( UTC + 10 ).

Preliminary round

A total of three preliminary runs were completed. The first six athletes of each run qualified for the semi-finals. In addition, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

September 27, 2000, 9:35 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Suzy Favor Hamilton	United States	4: 08.08
2	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4: 08.13
3	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 08.33
4th	Süreyya Ayhan	Turkey	4: 08.37
5	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 08.41
6th	Helen Pattinson	Great Britain	4: 08.80
7th	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 08.85
8th	Anita Weyermann	Switzerland	4: 09.28
9	Lyudmila Rogacheva	Russia	4: 09.81
10	Mardrea Hyman	Jamaica	4: 10.21
11	Abebech Negussie	Ethiopia	4: 15.52
12	Julia Sakara	Zimbabwe	4: 21.94
13	Tetiana Krywobok	Ukraine	4: 22.11
14th	Shazia Hidayat	Pakistan	5: 07.17
DNF	Leah Pells	Canada

Forward 2

The Spaniard Natalia Rodríguez was eliminated in twelfth place in the second run

September 27, 2000, 9:44 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Violeta Szekely	Romania	4: 10.18
2	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4: 10.34
3	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 10.38
4th	Veerle Dejaeghere	Belgium	4: 10.68
5	Sabine Fischer	Switzerland	4: 10.78
6th	Seloua Ouaziz	Morocco	4: 10.82
7th	Marla Runyan	United States	4: 10.83
8th	Georgina Clarke	Australia	4: 11.74
9	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	4: 12.59
10	Naomi Mugo	Kenya	4: 13.18
11	Hareg Sidelil	Ethiopia	4: 14.05
12	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4: 22.82
13	Daniela Kuleska	Macedonia	4: 33.50
DNF	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia

Forward 3

The Slovenian Helena Javornik was eliminated in twelfth of her semi-final run

September 27, 2000, 9:53 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 09.88
2	Nouria Mérah-Benida	Algeria	4: 10.24
3	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4: 10.58
4th	Elena Iagăr	Romania	4: 11.35
5	Nuria Fernández	Spain	4: 11.46
6th	Irina Krakowiak	Lithuania	4: 11.57
7th	Sinéad Delahunty	Ireland	4: 11.75
8th	Fatma Lanouar	Tunisia	4: 11.87
9	Shayne Culpepper	United States	4: 12.52
10	Natalia Gorelova	Russia	4: 12.84
11	Sarah Jamieson	Australia	4: 12.90
12	Helena Javornik	Slovenia	4: 18.18
13	Silvia Felipo	Andorra	4: 45.32
DNS	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco

Semifinals

The first five athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

September 28, 2000, 7:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Nouria Mérah-Benida	Algeria	4: 05.24
2	Suzy Favor Hamilton	United States	4: 05.25
3	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4: 05.34
4th	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 05.35
5	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4: 05.78
6th	Marla Runyan	United States	4: 06.14
7th	Sabine Fischer	Switzerland	4: 06.67
8th	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 09.16
9	Lyudmila Rogacheva	Russia	4: 09.18
10	Nuria Fernández	Spain	4: 10.92
11	Irina Krakowiak	Lithuania	4: 14.57
12	Elena Iagăr	Romania	4: 21.94

Run 2

The Belgian Veerle Dejaeghere reached the semi-finals and was eliminated there in sixth of her run

September 28, 2000, 7:10 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Violeta Szekely	Romania	4: 06.60
2	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 06.78
3	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4: 07.03
4th	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 07.38
5	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 07.65
6th	Veerle Dejaeghere	Belgium	4: 07.87
7th	Seloua Ouaziz	Morocco	4: 09.11
8th	Süreyya Ayhan	Turkey	4: 09.42
9	Helen Pattinson	Great Britain	4: 09.60
10	Georgina Clarke	Australia	4: 10.99
11	Mardrea Hyman	Jamaica	4: 14.20
12	Anita Weyermann	Switzerland	4: 30.80

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Nouria Mérah-Benida	Algeria	4: 05.10
2	Violeta Szekely	Romania	4: 05.15
3	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 05.27
4th	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 05.33
5	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4: 06.42
6th	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4: 06.49
7th	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 08.02
8th	Marla Runyan	United States	4: 08.30
9	Sabine Fischer	Switzerland	4: 08.84
10	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 11.15
11	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4: 22.29
12	Suzy Favor Hamilton	United States	4: 23.05

September 30, 2000, 8:20 pm

Two Polish, Romanian, US and British athletes as well as one participant each from Algeria, Ethiopia, Portugal and Switzerland qualified for the final.

The actual favorite Swetlana Masterkowa, Olympic champion from 1996 and reigning world and European champion , was eliminated after a fall in her preliminary run. The main candidates for medals were the Ethiopian World Cup third Kutre Dulecha and the two Romanians Violeta Szekely - World Cup fourth - and Gabriela Szabo - silver medalist from 1996.

The final race was approached at a very moderate pace and led by the visually impaired American Marla Runyan. The first round was completed in 1: 10.56 min. Team mate Suzy Favor Hamilton took over the lead and it got faster, for the second lap only 1: 05.37 minutes were needed. Six runners separated themselves more and more from their competitors. Lap three was run in 1: 01.03 min, so the pace was increased further. At the beginning of the last lap the field moved closer together again, the outcome of this race was completely open and there were still to be significant changes. At the beginning of the home stretch, Algerian Nouria Mérah-Benida was in the lead and had already established a visible lead. Behind them a group of five sprinted for the medals with Szekely, Dulecha, the two Polish women Lidia Chojecka and Anna Jakubczak and Hamilton. The race remained extremely exciting and eventful. First, the exhausted Hamilton touched the inside edge of the track and fell, while Szekely in particular came closer and closer to the front runner. In the end, Nouria Mérah-Benida won the race with just five hundredths of a second ahead of Violeta Szekely. Finally, Gabriela Szabo flew up from behind, who won the bronze medal. On the back straight she was still in last place. Kutre Dulecha was fourth ahead of Lidia Chojecka, Anna Jakubczak and Briton Kelly Holmes, who had won bronze over 800 meters five days earlier .

Marla Runyan, who finished eighth, was the first Olympic athlete to previously compete in the Paralympics .

• 

  Romanian bronze medalist Gabriela Szabo on a Romanian postage stamp

• 

  The Olympic fifth Lidia Chojecka from Poland

• 

  The British Kelly Holmes finished eighth in the final

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed April 4, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website , accessed April 4, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIth Olympiad, Results , English / French (PDF, 17,708 MB), accessed on April 4, 2018

Video

• TW Olympic games Sidney 2000 Nouria Merah Benida 1500 m , published on October 16, 2011 on youtube.com, accessed on April 4, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 795 , accessed on April 4, 2018