2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	33 athletes from 25 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 21, 2004 (preliminary round) August 22, 2004 (semi-finals) August 25, 2004 (final)
Medalists Fani Chalkia ( GRE )   Ionela Târlea ( ROM )   Tetjana Tereschchuk-Antipowa ( UKR )

The women's 400-meter hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens took place on August 21, 22 and 25, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 33 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Greek Fani Chalkia . She won ahead of the Romanian Ionela Târlea and the Ukrainian Tetjana Tereschtschuk-Antipowa .

Ulrike Urbansky started for Germany and was eliminated in the semifinals.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 2000	Irina Priwalowa ( Russia )	53.02 s	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003	Jana Pittman ( Australia )	53.22 s	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Ionela Târlea ( Romania )	54.95 s	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Joanna Hayes ( USA )	54.77 s	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean Champion 2003	Allison Beckford ( Jamaica )	55.12 s	St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Lucimar Teodoro ( Brazil )	56.86 s	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian Champion 2003	Huang Xiaoxiao ( People's Republic of China )	55.66 s	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	Surita Febbraio ( South Africa )	55.12 s	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	Mae Koime ( Papua New Guinea )	69.15 s	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	52.34 s	Julija Pechonkina ( Russia )	Tula , Russia	August 8, 2003
Olympic record	52.82 s	Deon Hemmings ( Jamaica )	Atlanta Final , USA	July 31, 1996

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

Preliminary round

A total of five preliminary runs were completed. The first two 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, 9:05 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Julia Pechonkina	Russia	53.57
2	Tetiana Tereshchuk-Antipova	Ukraine	54.63
3	Ulrike Urbansky	Germany	55.15
4th	Monika Niederstätter	Italy	55.57
5	Cora Olivero	Spain	56.19
6th	Patrina Allen	Jamaica	56.40
7th	Aïssata Soulama	Burkina Faso	57.60

Forward 2

August 21, 2004, 9:12 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Jana Pittman	Australia	54.83
2	Ekaterina Bikert	Russia	54.95
3	Natalija Torzhina-Alimshanova	Kazakhstan	55.22
4th	Ieva Zunda	Latvia	56.21
5	Benedetta Ceccarelli	Italy	56.28
6th	Surita Febbraio	South Africa	56.49

Forward 3

August 21, 2004, 9:19 am The German registered for the competition did not take part.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Ionela Târlea	Romania	54.41
2	Brenda Taylor	United States	54.72
3	Nezha Bidouane	Morocco	55.69
4th	Anna Jesień	Poland	56.03
5	Shevon Stoddart	Jamaica	56.61
6th	Klodiana Shala	Albania	60.00
DNS	Stephanie fight	Germany

Forward 4

Andrea Blackett from Barbados finished sixth in her preliminary run and was eliminated

The Polish Małgorzata Pskit was eliminated in sixth of their semi-finals

A fifth place in her semifinal race was not enough for the American Lashinda Demus to make it into the final

The first four runners in each of the two races (highlighted in light blue) qualified for the final. August 21, 2004, 9:26 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Fani Chalkia	Greece	53.85	NO
2	Lashinda Demus	United States	54.66
3	Ekaterina Bachvalova	Russia	55.16
4th	Debbie-Ann Parris	Jamaica	55.21
5	Yvonne Harrison	Puerto Rico	55.84
6th	Mame Tacko Diouf	Senegal	57.25
7th	Salhate Djamalidine	Comoros	59.72

Forward 5

August 21, 2004, 9:33 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Małgorzata Pskit	Poland	54.75
2	Sheena Tosta	United States	54.81
3	Huang Xiaoxiao	People's Republic of China	54.81
4th	Androula Sialou	Cyprus	55.02
5	Daimí Pernía	Cuba	55.91
6th	Andrea Blackett	Barbados	56.49
7th	Galina Pedan	Kyrgyzstan	59.02

Semifinals

Run 1

August 22, 2004, 9:20 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Julia Pechonkina	Russia	53.31
2	Jana Pittman	Australia	54.05
3	Sheena Tosta	United States	54.32
4th	Brenda Taylor	United States	55.02
5	Natalija Torzhina-Alimshanova	Kazakhstan	55.08
6th	Małgorzata Pskit	Poland	55.24
7th	Ulrike Urbansky	Germany	56.44
8th	Androula Sialou	Cyprus	65.72

Run 2

August 22, 2004, 9:29 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Fani Chalkia	Greece	52.77	OR
2	Ionela Târlea	Romania	53.32
3	Tetiana Tereshchuk-Antipova	Ukraine	53.37	NO
4th	Ekaterina Bikert	Russia	53.79
5	Lashinda Demus	United States	54.32
6th	Ekaterina Bachvalova	Russia	54.98
7th	Debbie-Ann Parris	Jamaica	54.99
8th	Huang Xiaoxiao	People's Republic of China	55.53

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)	annotation
1	Fani Chalkia	Greece	52.82
2	Ionela Târlea	Romania	53.38
3	Tetiana Tereshchuk-Antipova	Ukraine	53.44
4th	Sheena Tosta	United States	53.83
5	Jana Pittman	Australia	53.92
6th	Ekaterina Bikert	Russia	54.18
7th	Brenda Taylor	United States	54.97
8th	Julia Pechonkina	Russia	55.79

August 25, 2004, 9:55 pm

Two Russians and two US-Americans as well as one runner each from Australia, Greece, Romania and Ukraine qualified for the final.

There was a slightly larger group of favorites for this race. They included the Australian world champion Jana Pittman, the Russian world record holder and World Cup third Julija Pechonkina, the Romanian European champion and World Cup fourth Ionela Târlea and the US athlete Sheena Tosta. In the semifinals, the Greek runner Fani Chalkia, who was enthusiastically celebrated by the spectators, set a new high-quality Olympic record. With that she moved up to the group of medal candidates. The Moroccan world champion from 2001 Nezha Bidouane was here in Athens , but had to give up before the race.

Chalkia took the lead from the seventh hurdle. When it went into the home straight, she was less than a meter in front of Pittman, the Ukrainian Tetiana Tereschchuk-Antipowa and Târlea. All the other runners were already far behind. The Australian world champion broke down pretty much in the last hundred meters and lost every chance of a medal. In the front, however, Fani Chalkia had by far the best stamina. She won with 52.82 s and was only five hundredths of a second slower than in the semifinals. Her lead over runner-up Ionela Târlea was 56 hundredths of a second. Behind the Romanian, the Ukrainian Tetjana Tereschtschuk-Antipowa came in third. Sheena Tosta was fourth with a strong finish ahead of Jana Pittman and the Russian Jekaterina Bikert, while Julija Pechonkina finished eighth and last behind the American Brenda Taylor.

Fani Chalkia's Olympic victory brought the first Greek medal in this discipline.

Tetiana Tereschchuk-Antipowa also won her country's first medal in the 400 meter hurdles for women.

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  The Australian Jana Pittman finished fifth in the final

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  The Russian Julija Pechonkina was Olympic eight

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed May 11, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website , accessed on May 11, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on May 11, 2018

Video

• 2004 Olympics Women's 400m Hurdles , posted December 25, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed May 11, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 797 , accessed on May 11, 2018