2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	42 athletes from 32 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 21, 2004 (preliminary round) August 22, 2004 (semi-finals) August 24, 2004 (final)
Medalists Tonique Williams-Darling ( BAH )   Ana Guevara ( MEX )   Natalja Antjuch ( RUS )

The women's 400-meter run at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was held on August 21, 22 and 24, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 42 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Tonique Williams-Darling from the Bahamas. She won ahead of the Mexican Ana Guevara and the Russian Natalja Antjuch .

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

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 2000	Cathy Freeman ( Australia )	49.11 s	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003	Ana Guevara ( Mexico )	48.89 s	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Olesja Sykina ( Russia )	50.45 s	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Ana Guevara ( Mexico )	50.36 s	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean Champion 2003	Hazel-Ann Regis ( Grenada )	51.56 s	St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Geisa Aparecida Coutinho ( Brazil )	51.81 s	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian Champion 2003	Yin Yin Khine ( Myanmar )	52.96 s	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	Fatou Bintou case ( Senegal )	50.62 s	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	Makalesi Bulikiobo ( Fiji )	56.67 s	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	47.80 s	Marita Koch ( GDR )	Canberra , Australia	October 6, 1985
Olympic record	48.25 s	Marie-José Pérec ( France )	Atlanta Final , USA	July 29, 1996

Note: All times are based on Athens local time ( UTC + 2 ).

Preliminary round

A total of six preliminary runs were completed. The first three 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

August 21, 2004, 9:50 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Ana Guevara	Mexico	50.93
2	Lee McConnell	Great Britain	51.19
3	Grażyna Prokopek	Poland	51.29
4th	Fatou Bintou case	Senegal	51.87
5	Hortense Béwouda	Cameroon	52.11
6th	Oksana Lunewa	Kyrgyzstan	52.94
7th	Ruwida El-Hubti	Libya	63.57	NO

Forward 2

August 21, 2004, 9:57 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Monique Hennagan	United States	51.02
2	Marijana Dimitrova	Great Britain	51.29
3	Kaltouma Nadjina	Chad	51.50
4th	Nadia Davy	Jamaica	52.04
5	Maria Laura Almirão	Brazil	52.10
6th	Kirsi Mykkänen	Finland	52.53
7th	Bo fan catch	People's Republic of China	56.01

Forward 3

The Senegalese Amy Mbacké Thiam, world champion from 2001 , was eliminated fifth in her preliminary run

Amantle Montsho from Botswana finished sixth in their preliminary run and was eliminated

August 21, 2004, 10:04 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Natalia Nazarova	Russia	50.82
2	Donna Fraser	Great Britain	51.19
3	Hazel-Ann Regis	Grenada	51.66
4th	Estie Wittstock	South Africa	51.89
5	Amy Mbacké Thiam	Senegal	52.44
6th	Amantle Montsho	Botswana	53.77	NO
7th	Samira Amirova	Uzbekistan	54.43

Forward 4

August 21, 2004, 10:11 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Natalja Antjuch	Russia	50.54
2	DeeDee Trotter	United States	50.56
3	Novlene Williams-Mills	Jamaica	50.59
4th	Aliann Pompey	Guyana	51.33
5	Egle Uljas	Estonia	51.91	NO
6th	Svetlana Bodritzkaja	Kazakhstan	53.35
7th	Shifana Ali	Maldives	60.92	NO

Forward 5

August 21, 2004, 10:18 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Tonique Williams-Darling	Bahamas	51.20
2	Svyatlana Usovich	Belarus	51.37
3	Antonina Yefremova	Ukraine	51.53
4th	Mireille Nguimpo	Cameroon	51.90
5	Allison Beckford	Jamaica	52.85
6th	Sandrine Thiébaud-Kangni	Togo	52.87
7th	Damayanthi Dharsha	Sri Lanka	54.58

Forward 6

August 21, 2004, 10:25 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Sanya Richards-Ross	United States	50.11
2	Christine Amertil	Bahamas	50.23
3	Christine Ohuruogu	Great Britain	50.50
4th	Tiandra Ponteen	St. Kitts and Nevis	51.17
5	Geisa Aparecida Coutinho	Brazil	52.18
6th	Makelesi Bulikiobo	Fiji	53.58
7th	Salamtou Hassane	Niger	63.28	NO

Semifinals

The first two athletes qualified for the final in the three semi-finals per run. 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

August 22, 2004, 10:20 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Ana Guevara	Mexico	50.15
2	Christine Amertil	Bahamas	50.17
3	Sanya Richards-Ross	United States	50.54
4th	Christine Ohuruogu	Great Britain	51.00
5	Tiandra Ponteen	St. Kitts and Nevis	51.33
6th	Svyatlana Usovich	Belarus	51.42
7th	Hazel-Ann Regis	Grenada	51.47
8th	Egle Uljas	Estonia	53.13

Run 2

August 22, 2004, 10:29 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Tonique Williams-Darling	Bahamas	50.00
2	DeeDee Trotter	United States	50.14
3	Natalia Nazarova	Russia	50.63
4th	Fatou Bintou case	Senegal	51.21
5	Kaltouma Nadjina	Chad	51.57
6th	Estie Wittstock	South Africa	51.77
7th	Donna Fraser	Great Britain	51.94
8th	Grażyna Prokopek	Poland	51.96

Run 3

August 22, 2004, 10:38 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Monique Hennagan	United States	49.88
2	Natalja Antjuch	Russia	50.04
3	Novlene Williams-Mills	Jamaica	50.85
4th	Marijana Dimitrova	Bulgaria	51.20
5	Aliann Pompey	Guyana	51.61
6th	Antonina Yefremova	Ukraine	51.90
7th	Mireille Nguimgo	Cameroon	52.21
8th	Lee McConnell	Great Britain	52.63

• 

  The British Christine Ohuruogu finished fourth in her semifinals and was eliminated

• 

  The South African Estie Wittstock finished sixth in her semi-final and was eliminated

• 

  As the seventh of her semi-final race, the British Donna Fraser did not reach the final

• 

  Despite a third place in her semifinals, the Jamaican Novlene Williams-Mills was eliminated

• 

  Lee McConnell from Great Britain reached the semi-finals and was eliminated there as eighth of their race

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Tonique Williams-Darling	Bahamas	49.42
2	Ana Guevara	Mexico	49.56
3	Natalja Antjuch	Russia	49.89
4th	Monique Hennagan	United States	49.97
5	DeeDee Trotter	United States	50.00
6th	Sanya Richards-Ross	United States	50.19
7th	Christine Amertil	Bahamas	50.37
8th	Natalia Nazarova	Russia	50.65

August 24, 2004, 10:50 p.m.

All three US women and two athletes from the Bahamas, two Russians and one Mexican had qualified for the final.

The reigning world champion , the Mexican Ana Guevara, was considered the favorite for the gold medal. The World Cup fifth Tonique Williams-Darling from the Bahamas, who had improved significantly this year, was seen as her strongest competitor. Other medal candidates were World Cup third and 2001 World Champion Amy Mbacké Thiam from Senegal and the three Americans Monique Hennagan, Sanya Richards-Ross and DeeDee Trotter. Of them, Mbacké Thiam was already eliminated in the run-up.

In the final everything was open for a long time. Halfway through the course, the gaps between the first five runners were extremely close. At the start of the home stretch, Williams-Darling was just ahead of Guevara and Richards-Ross. The two favorites had by far the best stamina in the last sixty meters. Guevara moved closer and closer to her competitor, but in the end she couldn't get past her. Tonique Williams-Darling won by 14 hundredths of a second over Guevara. Richards hadn't been able to keep up with her pace and had fallen behind. The Russian Natalja Antjuch came third in front of the three US runners Monique Hennagan, DeeDee Trotter and Sanya Richards-Ross. Christine Amertil from the Bahamas was seventh, the Russian Natalja Nasarowa eighth.

Tonique Williams-Darling was the Bahamas' first ever Olympic and medalist in the women's 400-meter race .

Ana Guevara won the first Mexican medal in this discipline.

• 

  Silver medalist Ana Guevara from Mexico - here in a white jersey

• 

  Bronze medalist Natalja Antjuch from Russia

• 

  The US Olympic champion Monique Hennagan (USA)

• 

  Sanya Richards-Ross from the USA came in sixth in the final

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed May 6, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website , accessed on May 6, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on May 6, 2018

Video

• 2004 Olympics Women's 400m , published December 24, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed May 6, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 794 , accessed on May 6, 2018